Pursuit of Happiness
by susanagracee
Summary: "Happiness is a state of mind, a choice, a way of living; it is not something to be achieved, it is something to be experienced."
1. Frayed

**Hey! It's chapter 1! I know, I know, I was supposed to do submit this like yesterday, but I have a good excuse!**

**Kind of. Well you see, monday I had volleyball, and had to clean the house. Then, yesterday I had volleyball, then went out to lunch, then went to the beach, and then made/had dinner. Sorry! I erally hope you like it, I hope to update the second chapter ASAP. Like maybe Saturday? You see, my BFFL is going to Italy like this week, and I won't see her for like 2 weeks. THE AGONY! So, I'll have to like go boating or something with her, and that cuts down my time by alot. And I have to spend time with the Italian kid that is visiting her. So, yah. Anyways, anough of my excuses, read on! I hope you like it!**

You could hear a pen drop. Nobody dared to speak as the principal paced infront of the lines and lines of students. They were in stiff, straight lines. Sorted by grade, then last name. Cato was, naturally, near the middle, her last name being Laughlin. She shared a glance that said '_I _told_ you that he was going to get in trouble for that one.'_ with a short girl that was sporting a black pixie cut, and a rebelious black nose piercing.

Let's get something straight first- Cato and Andromeda Rodgers were by no means what-so-ever friends. No, is you wanted to find friends, you would look to those two girls that were always giggling in the back of Pre-Calc together. You know who they are. Cato and Andy (as she _much_ prefered to be called) called themselves 'Strangers with Benefits'. No, not that way you perverted wierdos. A Stranger with Benefits (or at least, in this context) is the person you pair up with in lab class because you don't have another friend in that class. They are the person you bet with, the person you occasionally exchange awkward conversations with and despite the fact that you spend about an hour a day with them, you know nothing about them.

This time, they had bet on whether or not Hunter Greene would get caught for replacing Ms. Ursa's coffee with formaldehyde, that gross stuff used to preserve dead frogs. Cato must admit, she had it coming for her.

Andy just rolled her eyes, and gestured to tell Cato to look back at the front of the room.

"Are you sure there was nobody else in on this?" The principal glared at the lines of student standing stiffly in perfect formation.

Hunter's eye's snapped over to the line of 10th graders and Cato felt a sinking feeling in her chest.

"So there was!" Principal Moore took a step closer to the boy and he flinched.

The boy muttered something under his breath, and Principal Moore rose an eyebrow.

"Louder, boy!"

"J-Josh Summers." Just about every 10th grader gasped. There was no way in _hell_ that Josh Summers would do such a thing. Andy looked over to Cato, who looked over to Josh's twin Grace, who looked over to Josh.

The poor boy was turning slightly pale, standing stiffly still. We all looked back to the front of the room, and Principal Moore called out;

"Joshua Summers! Step out of formation!" He stepped to the left, away and out of the line. Hunter Greene just smirked, and watched as Principal Moore started walking to the boy, till they were nose to nose.

"You just let your partner-in-crime take all the shame and embarassment by himself?" She asked softly so that only Josh and the people in a small radius could hear her.

"But I-" Josh protested, his green eyes shining slightly in rebellion. Normally Joshua Summers was not much of a trouble maker. He was a very light hearted person, and outgoing. One thing that was known throughout most of the school that Hunter absolutely dispised Josh. Everyone knew that, so it was not really surprising that Hunter was dragging Josh into this. Grace, turned to look at the teachers in the back of the room, hoping that one would protest. Some where obviously putting two and two together, realising Josh did nothing. Grace turned back to the principal, absolute hate burning in her bright green eyes.

"You!" The principal pointed a thin gnarled finger to Cato. Her sea foam green eys widened into perfect circles, as wide as saucers.

"M-Me?" She stuttered, her face in a mixture of surprise and fear.

"You. Take both of these boys to the front office where I will deal with them." Principal Moore also signaled to Mr. Corals, the biology techer to go with them.

Grace exchanged glances with her best friends, telling her to not worry about it, but try to figure out what was going to happen.

Cato gave Grace a slight nod, and started walking out of the room. After the door closed shut, Principal Moore started pacing, then halted on the right side of the room.

"THIS is NOT the behavior that students in Frayed! I expect that we have ALL learned from this. Frayed Military Acadamy will NOT tolerate trouble makers! If any of you step one TOE out of line, I will make sure you pay. Break." Her voice was loud and raspy in the first place, but yelling just made it worse and much more inhumane. We all filed out, then to scatter to our own respectable dorm rooms.

Meanwhile, Cato was walking inbetween both boys, and Mr. Coral was walking behind them.

"Why'd you do that?" Josh asked, his voice creepily monotone.

"We can't all have perfect files." Hunter answered.

"We can't? Hey, Cato do you have a perfect file?" Josh turned his attention to the blonde walking inbetween them.

"No." Cato didn't elaborate, and kept her eyes on the end of the hallway.

"What?! What did you do?" Hunter asked, pretending to be shocked.

"Don't even try that, Greene." She replied curtly. Hunter just chuckled, and mouthed _'Uptight'_ to Josh.

"Shut the ef up Hunter." He was starting to get frustrated.

"Aw, if poor ickle Joshie Poo getting angwy?" Hunter mocked, laughing out loud at his own attempt of pushing Josh's buttons.

"Greene, seriously it would help everybody if you just shut up." Cato kept her eyes on the principal's office's door.

"Do I care?" Hunter rolled his eyes. Cato quickened her pace so that the other people would have to jog somewhat to keep up. She then halted at the door and waited for Mr. Coral to unlock the door. Josh went in first and took in the office. Principal Moore's desk was pushed into the corner, where a moose head hung from the wall. The door had a dart board and a few scrubby couches were scatterd around the room. It smelled suspiciously like Eau de Cologne and wet dog. Mr. Coral went in after the boys and told Cato to go to her dorm.

The door slammed in her face and she rolled her eyes, walking back down the hallway heading to her dorm room. She shared it with Grace, Andy and a girl called Hannah and when she entered she found Grace pacing, Andy not even in the room and Hannah passed out (sleeping) on her bunk. Grace stopped when Cato entered.

"Did you find out what they were going to get?" Her eyes were beady.

"I don't-" Cato started to say when the entire school filled with loud screams.

**I wonder who that was... Haha JK. Just wondering, would you prefer the chapters be longer (like 2k words) or shorter (1k words)? Review to tell me!  
**

**Also, if someone would like to try to make a cover image for me (I can't draw) I would love you! Just PM me susanagracee!**

**My instagram is susanagracee *wink wink***


	2. We Run Into a Basenji

"What was that?" Grace asked the blonde, her stomach twisting uneasily.

"Crap." Was all Cato said. She was about to turn around to run out, when Andy raced in.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Andy was panting, her hair dripping, and Grace could still see the water droplets on her skin.

"Do you guys have backpacks?" Grace asked, urgently, heading to her bunk to grab her to-go backpack. It contained snackable foods, duct tape (bronze, of course), candy, bedroll, money, an extra change of clothes (or two) and firecrackers (never leave without an extra explosive close at hand, right?).

"Um, why?" Cato didn't budge, but Andy started rumaging through her things.

"I'll explain later. Just quick!" Grace, started to go through Cato's neatly arranged bags that where hanging of nobs that she had put on her bunk. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her snatching a picture off of her wall, packing water, clothes, rope and... handcuffs?

"Grace! You're messing up my bags!" Cato complained, slapping Grace away from her bags.

"It won't matter, 'cause we're leaving!" Grace moaned, as Cato grabbed a big white backpack with aquamarine shell and sea horse designs.

She started stuffing entire outfits into the thing, and Grace just had to stop her.

"Cato! We're going to have to survive on what we have in these bags! Grab _neccesities_!" She scolded.

"But these are neccesities!" Cato whined, giving her best friend puppy eyes.

"No. Grab _two_ outfits at the most." Grace flipped the bag over and was starting to get frustrated with the time that the packing was taking.

"Fine, fine!" She grabbed the clothes, and starting to fill it with reasonable things- her phone (how she managed to smuggle that thing into school, Grace didn't know), beef jerky (Ew! Grace was vegetarian), a bathing suit (once again, how and why would she need that in a boarding school in upper state New York?), SPF 50, make-up, toiletries, money, a bedroll and she starting stuffing gatorades in the empty parts.

She grabbed a penguin pillowpet (that glows in the dark!) and tied it to the bag with a sweatshirt.

"Great! I'm ready!" Cato announced, swinging the backpack over her shoulders, and all three girls raced out of the dorm, Grace in the lead.

"WAIT!" Cato cried, halting suddenlt.

"What now, Cat?" Grace stopped also.

"Can I change?" Cato gave her friend a blinding smile. Grace gave the girl that said _'Really? Really?' _and said

"This is not the time to go all Sharpay on me. We need to get Josh, then go. No more distractions."

"But _Gracie_!" Cato whined.

"No." Grace replied and started sprinting back down the hall. They ran all the way to the principal's office, noticing other kids running around frantically. Some claimed to have heard a gun shot, other's saying that it was the ghost that lived in the third floor girl's bathroom (long story).

"Crap, crap, crap!" Grace tried the door, but it wouldn't yeild. There was a crash from inside, then another scream. It opened, and there stood Josh Summers, smirking slightly.

"Looking for me, ladies?" He leaned casualy on the doorframe, and his twin looked at him with wild green eyes.

"JOSH! We need to _go_!" She exclaimed, and he crained his neck.

"Did you get me my backpack?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing when he couldn't spot the navy blue bag.

"No, they on't let me in the boy's domitories! What do you think I am, invisible?" Josh, rolled his eyes, and broke into a jog, heading to the rooms.

"I'll be quick. Meet me in the front." He quickly kissed the top of his sister's head, and raced throught the doors.

"Let's go." Grace started running to the front of the school, her combat boots hitting the tiled floor.

Cato and Andy followed close behind, and suddenly Cato tripped over her shoes. She tumbled, and Andy halted, Grace also slowing.

Cato started to get up when a screech filled the hallway. She fell back in shock when she saw what was chasing them. It was a giant dog, a Basenji to be exact, with two heads.

"Is- is that the dog that's supposed to guard the underworld in greek mythology?" Andy's voice was shaking slightly. Grace shook her head, and pulled a bronze sword from her backpack.

"Is that a sword?" Andy took a few steps away from the chestnut haired girl.

"Yeah. The dog is called Orthrus*, he's the brother of Cerebus, the dog gaurding the underworld. Son of Echidna and Typhon." Grace answered, and Cato Started scooting away from the orange colored dog.

"Grace!" They heard from the other end of the hall. Josh was racing to them, the only standing in their way was an eight foot dog with two heads.

"Josh, watch out!" She cried, as the dog turned around, growling.

"Grace, get them out! I'll kill it!" He answered to her protest, pulling out a long bronze sword. By this time, Andy's eyes were as big as moons, and Cato was rubbing her temples muttering something about 'magic mushrooms'.

"I already killed Eurytion. Let me tell you, he was quite the tough monster. Three hearts? Not cool." Josh tried to assure his sister while he slashed at the dog.

"Josh!" Grace yelled as the dog snapped it's jaws about two inches from the boy's face.

"I'm fine! GO!" Grace uncertainly turned, and started to drag the other girls out of the school. They broke through the heavy forest green doors, and heard a loud whine.

All three turned in sync and watched as Josh stabbed the monster, and it dissolved into yellow dust, sending off a stong sulferic odor.

Josh started sprinting, as did the other girls. The group moved quickly to the barbed fence surrounding Frayed Military Academy. Starting to climb it, Josh took a pair of clippers and snapped the fence open, and pushed open a hole for all of the to climb through.

"They should really check on that electric part of the fence. It's never on." He laughed, helping Andy down from the hole.

"We need to move fast, we never know who else was a monster." Grace informed the two girls. They raced into the woods, jumping off of roots to gain speed.

"Monsters?" Cato asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"I'll explain later." Grace panted, as the forest floor started to rise.

The four 16 year olds ran and ran until the sun started to sink, and Josh ordered a halt in a small clearing.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Cato moaned, wincing as she sat down on the floor.

"I know right." Andy agreed, leaning on a tall pine.

"We need firewood and rocks." Josh called, hauling a large rock over to the middle of the clearing.

Cato groaned as she stood once again, her muscles straining under the abuse.

A few minuets later they had a collection of rocks in a circle, and a fire in the middle, courtesy of Grace's supply of matches (for her firecrackers, of course).

Grace was rolling out her bed roll, as was Josh and Cato. Andy was left to find the softest spot of dirt and deal with it, until Grace offered to leave hers open so that they could share.

"So, what happened back there?" Grace asked her brother, sitting criss-cross applesauce on her makeshift bed. Josh was working on something, nobody could see what, Andy was reading and Cato was playing Flappy Bird on her phone. Andy had previously told her to use her battery sparingly, but Cato had just waved her off, informing her that she had two mobile chargers that were full (they were Lily Pulitzer too, according to Cato), and that she had '_like just_' charged, hence the 100%.

"Well, when the door shut, Moore had just started pacing like she always does. Then she waved off what Hunter and said 'We've been watching you and your friends, Summers. This time, you won't get away with it' she had said, then snapped, and Mr. Corals suddenly grew like an extra head!" Josh exclaimed. Andy had looked up and was watching the boy intently.

"Then, I pulled out the sword and killed him, excetra and-"

"So monsters suddenly appearing is an everyday occurance for you?" Andy interrupted, incredously.

"Eh, it happens every now and then. Josh, continue." Grace answered, pulling out Lays Potato chips from her bag and was munching noisily on them.

"Well then, the principal suddenly disappeared and I was like 'Woah' and then you guys came. I assumed it was because Hunter had screamed when another head started growing srom Mr. Corals' neck. It seriously looked like one of those shrunken heads that Ms. Gaj had in 7th grade." He informed his sister, refering to the old woman who was his Pre-Algebra math teacher.

"Wait, so you mean the two headed monster dog was _not_ a figment of my imagination?" Cato asked suddenly, looking up from the bright phone screen.

"_Yes_, we've already been through this. I didn't think you were that slow! Anyways, so what happened after we came to pick you up?" Grace snapped at her friends, feeling slightly bad about it after the words had slipped out her mouth, but she was getting impatient.

"So then, apparently Moore was Echidna, but she had just disappeared, to weak to fight her own battles after Jackson defeated her. She sent her son, Orthro though, and that's when I found you all." Josh concluded his story, and Andy was raising a black eyebrow in disbelief.

"You know I'm surpised the sent all three after us. One of you must be really powerful, though we are four demigods." Grace was deep in thought, her eyes fixed on some point in the fire. Cato choked on her muffin (how she had that in her bag was still a mystery) and mirrored

"Demigods?"

"Do you both have some mental disorder?" Josh asked randomly, as if he was about to burst.

Andy shifted uneasily, and didn't say a word.

"Like attention defecit disorder and dyslexia." Grace supplied. Andy visibally relaxed and Grace put finding out why on her mental to-do list.

"I have ADHD." Andy's fingers twitched, as if agreeing with her.

"I have both." Cato added, but then stopped and looked straight into Grace's eyes, light green onto bright, intense green.

"What do you mean by demigods?"

"Well, both of you only have one parent, right?" Andy nodded stiffly and Cato didn't move.

"Well, the reason is because your other parent is a greek god." Grace let out a huge breath, as if she was holding it in for a long time.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Greek gods don't _exist_." Cato argued.

"Yes, they do! How do you think that you saw a eight foot Basenji with two heads and abnormally long tounge...s" Grace chellenged her friend.

"Magic mushrooms, duh." Cato rolled her eyes, as if it was obvois.

"Magic mushrooms don't exist." Grace snapped, loosing her cool and collected facade for a second there.

"Greek gods don't exist." Josh and Andy were watching the argument like it was a ping pong match.

"Why is this so hard to understand? What are you so afraid of?" Grace asked, getting closer to her friend, her voice softening.

"Grace, do the thing." Josh told his twin, as if the other two weren't able to hear them.

"Cat, I really don't want to do this but..." Grace sighed as she grabbed her friends forearm. Suddenly, both girls collapsed on the bed roll, and Andy leaped backwards.

"What are they doing?" Andy whispered from the side of her mouth, keeping her eyes on the two other girls, as if they were going to spring up and attack her at any given time.

"Well, since our dad is Apollo, god of music,poetry,medicine and prophecies, Grace is able to see someone's past or future. She doesn't get to choose the vision, but she can choose if the person comes with her or not. I think she brought Cato with her this time."

"Oh." Andy kept her eyes on the girls as she sat down on her (or rather, Grace's) bed roll.

"Why were you so... cool about the who Gods thing? I mean Cato's reaction is pretty normaly among new demigods."

"My dad believed in hellenic polytheism." Andy's gaze snapped from the girls to the fire.

"Don't even try using fancy words on me!" It was Josh's was of telling Andy that he had no idea what that was.

"He believed in greek gods. I didn't, but he did." She attempted to pull the short sleeves of the school uniform down, for the feeling of scurity, but the sleves didn't extend much more.

"He did?"

"Yah, but can we please not talk about this?" Andy asked returning her gaze to the flames.

_Both of the girls were standing at the top of a cliff. Down below, just before the rock disappeared into musky fog, there eas a ledge. On the ledge slouched a figure, their shoulders weak. They heard a choking sound and both girls whipped their heads around to see Cato... but it wasn't really her. It was like a hazy image, like a ghost. Come to think of it, everything where they were was a hazy image, like a fake picture._

_The ghost Cato looked different. She had charred hair, that went just below her shoulders. She was a bit taller, and she held herself like she had the burden on the world on her shoulders, but was proud of it. She had scars all over her arms, her right arm was bound with a hot pink cloth, and she had a scar on her face running from the outside tip of her left eye to her jawbone. A tear fell down her face, and both solid girls looked over to the figure on the ledge. Something was happeneing, something life changing, and current Cato didn't want to watch it. There was a loud crack from the sky and suddenly a bright light emerged. It looked like the sky was splitting open, and spilling out the heavens. A bird's cry was then heard, and solid Cato shut her eyes tightly. _

"_Stop it!" She cried to Grace, as she covered her face with her hands._

"_Do you believe me now?" _

"_Fine! Yes, just stop it!" Cato turned away from the scene, and faced the black nothingness. That nothingness was the world that the future cato did't remember, or didn't pay attention to when she was doing something else._

_It felt like a hand had left her forearm, though she didn't feel it there before._

Cato shot back up, her green eyes wild. Grace's eyelids opened slowly, and she gazed at her friend sorrowfully.

"Did it work?" Josh asked, while opening his bed roll.

"Oh, it worked alright." Grace scoffed, and started to climb onto her bed roll.

"I'm just going to sleep." Cato muttered, and pulled out her pillow pet, and curled up, her back to the others.

The rest of the demigods followed suit.

"Andy, wake up!" Andy heard, and her eyes cracked open, only to shut them again.

"No." She groaned, rolling over so that her face was burried in the sleeping bag.

"Yes." Grace retorted.

"No."

"Andy! It's a new dawn! It's a new day! Come on, your wasting it! Sieze the day!" Andy heard Cato exclaim. 'Well, she sure had an attitude change. I thought I was the one with mood problems.' Andy hought to herself as she answered;

"More like sieze the pillow." Cato laughed, and suddenly the bed roll was pulled out from under Andy.

"AH! My eyes!" She cried, clutching them in pain.

"Great! Now that you decided to get up, we need to go. The nearest bus stop is like 4 hours away." Grace to the black haired girl. She stuffed the bedroll into her bag, and Josh snuffed out the remaning embers.

They were all out of their uniforms- Josh in simple jeans and a football sweatshirt, Grace sporting jeans and a pink and green sweatshirt that said 'Delphi's Strawberry's'. Cato was wearing the least pratical clothing, wearing ugg boots, grey skinny jeans and a loose maroon sweater.

"Really, Cato?" Andy asked, grabbing black jeans, and a navy long sleeved shirt.

"I'm gonna go change, so... yah." Andy announced, and headed over to a tall bush. When she finished changing, she made sure she covered the six thin white lines on her wrist.

"Well, let's go!" She told the others, pulling on a black leather jacket, and swinging her pack over her shoulder.

Josh gave her a weird look, and took the lead of their excursion.

"To Camp Half-Blood!" He announced, snapping a slick off of the nearest tree as a walking stick.

"To Camp Half-... what?"


	3. All Hail

**Disclaimer: I only own Cato. Ricky owns everything you recognize and the other characters you don't recognize belong to other fanfictioners. **

**Ok, I know, I'm taking _forever_ to update... Sorry! It's just, I have so much Volleyball, andwhen I can write, I don't know what to write! I went to camp for a week, so I didn't update for a week... Oops, sorry! If you want to see 'Cato's Stuff' go to Wanelo, type in my username (anniethetigeress) and click 'Cato's Stuff' the story. I'm sorry, I'm easily influenced when writing according to the song I'm listing to, and I had 1D (I love them, by the way. I understand if you don't, as I used to not like 'em), Iggy Azaela and The Cab Pandora playing. So yah. BTW, I'm Still up for the cover image thing, I really need them. If you PM me, I can tell you the appearances of the characters... Sorry cupcakes, that was really long. Read on!**

"_Turn your wounds into wisdom"_

_-_Oprah Winfrey

The bus from northern New York to Southern New York seemed like it took ages, and for a group of ADHD kids, the six hour and two minuet drive from Potsdam to Manhattan, it was.

Grace was gazed outside of the bus, at the trees and streets. Meanwhile, Cato was sprawled across both seats, her legs slung over the side of her seat crossing the isle, and resting not the seat on the other end. Her head was on Grace's lap, ontop of her pillow pet.

Josh was sitting on the seat where the blonde rested her feet, and next to him Andy was facing outside, her legs curled up to her chest. She had her back to the other three, and her eyes stayed fixed on one spot in the glass, with a glazed look. Josh had tried to start a conversation with her, but she only replied with words of one syllable, or just grunting. He had given up, and was instead listening to music, red beats atop his chestnut hair.

The bus reached it's destination, and Grace was just counting the seconds till they were safe through the camp's protective shield.

"Let's go quickly!" Josh exclaimed to the group, and broke into a jog.

"Come on!" Grace followed her brother close behind. Andy sighed loudly and followed while Cato was still rubbing the sleep away in her eyes.

"Guys!" She yawned, and started to jog after them while trying to velcro her penguin to her backpack. Giving up, she tucked it under her arm and ran after them, until she caught up with Josh. The Summers twins had explained 'Camp Half-Blood' further, but neither Cato nor Andy were sure what to expect.

They passed a huge forest, and a big strawberry field, titled 'Delphi Strawberry Service Field'. The passed another group of trees, where there was a huge hill. At the edge of the hill, there was a huge pine tree, the Christmas tree kind, with something gold glinting in it's branches. Standing on the street, you could see just the top of a baby blue wooden house. All four sixteen year olds halted and just gazed at the hill.

"Hey!" They heard a loud voice something from their left. All of them turned to look at a girl who looked about eighteen, with short shorts, and a very revealing v-neck. She was breath-taking, and Josh took a step forward towards her, letting out a deep breath. Grace grabbed his arm, as if to stop him, but he shook it off, as if in a trance. Andy narrowed her eyes, and was as if the image of the girl had flickered, then went back to the beautiful girl. They flickered again, but this time the other image stayed long enough for Andy to see the girl had flaming hair, snow white skin, and fangs. The weirdest thing was that one of her legs was shaggy and a brownish gray, the other bronze.

The image once again turned to the normal girl, but Andy lunged forward, grabbing Josh's shoulder.

"Get off of me!" He exclaimed, and judo-flipped the girl.

"Josh!" Grace cried as the monster lunged, baring her fangs. Just in time, he pulled out a celestial bronze arrow, and stabbed the monster.

"Wh-what was that?" Cato asked, the color draining out of her tanned face.

"An _empousa._ Quick, we don't want any other monsters to attack us." Grace grabbed her brother, who was blinking slowly into reality, Andy's forearms.

The black-haired girl jerked her hand back and hissed in through her teeth.

"Are you okay?" Grace asked, her eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"I'm fine. Really." Andy got up herself, and subconsciously pulled down the sleeves of her jacket.

"If you say so." Grace gave her a weird look, and both twins started running to the big house. Cato shifted her backpack, before sprinting after them. Andy sighed and walked briskly to the house. When she arrived, the screen door was wide open, and the actual door unlocked. She opened the door hesitantly, and found a man in a wheelchair talking to the twins, as Cato was staring shocked at something on the wall. Taking another step in, the man and the twins turned to look at her.

She looked over to the wall to see a leopard head, except it was moving. It growled at her, and Cato squeaked, jumping back.

"I am Chiron." The man moved up, and emerged from the wheelchair. He kept growing taller and taller until he was fully standing- the half horse man in all his glory.

Andy swallowed slowly and took a loud breath.

"I'm And-"

"Andromeda Rodgers, yes." He nodded, and turned, ignoring her face at the mention of her full name.

"And Cato Laughlin." Cato snapped around and gave him an odd look.

"It KAH- Toe, not KAY- TOH" The centaur just chuckled, and walked away from them.

"Do you have any ideas of their parentage?" He asked, walking onto the back porch.

"Nope. Though, we do know Cato's is male, and Andy's is female."

"I am not male!" Cato exclaimed, giving Josh the stink eye.

"No, you live with your mother correct?" Chiron smiled wisely at the girl.

"Well- yes. What does that have to do with anything?" She asked the man, looking at him hesitantly.

"You'll see. Take them both to Cabin Eleven." The half man ordered.

Cato followed behind the twins Andy stayed behind studying the centaur.

"Why?" Andy asked, looking straight into his knowledge-filled eyes.

"That is something you find out with time, child."

Andy grimaced, shifted the backpack on her shoulders and jogged after the three retreating figures.

"This is the Hermes cabin, also known as Cabin Eleven. You're going to be claimed soon, as your Godly parents only have about ½ a week wiggle room." Josh lead Cato and Andy into the only average looking cabin they had seen, an old log building. Kid's were lounging all over the beds, and it looked a lot bigger than it had on the outside. Only a handful of kids were sitting criss-crossed on the sleeping bags that were scattered out on the wooden floor.

"Wiggle room?" Cato asked, elegantly raising a blonde eyebrow as she followed Grace to a spot on the ground without any sleeping bag.

"Determind?" Came a call from a messy area in the corner.

"Undetermind." Josh replied. There was a collective groan and everyone turned away.

"You might end up staying here..." Grace told Cato under her breath.

"Why?" The blonde whispered back.

"You never knew your dad. That means he was your godly parent. We've already gone through this."

Cato sighed loudly, and set down her backpack.

"Watch out, this cabin is known to steal stuff; watch your wallet and phone." Josh gestured to both girls' bags.

"So this is what I'm going to be calling home for the next week?" Andy asked distastefully.

"It's not that bad..."Josh tried to defend the cabin, bit one look from Grace silenced him.

"How about we show you around camp." Josh tried to break the awkward silence while he lead them out.

"Your counselor is Axel Beaver by the way. He's pretty nice, and not really crazy like some of the other counselors." Josh told the two girls that hiked behind him as they passed the other cabins.

"That's our cabin." Grace pointed to a big cabin that looked like it was made of solid gold. It was glowing brightly, making it hard to look at.

"What's that cabin?" Cato asked, pointing to a marble cabin-shaped building.

"Thats-"

"Oh! What about that flat one with the coral and seashell walls?"

"That would be-"

"What about the one with the grass roof- Or the gray one? Or that red one that looked like it was painted by a two year old? I actually wonder if a two year old can paint... it may, but the question is how it got that high because I know that when I was two years old I wouldn't be able to balance on a ladder like that-"

"Cato." Josh stopped the girl who was looking around and running in a zigzag pattern from cabin to cabin.

"Huh?" She asked absentmindedly, inspecting Cabin 1.

"The marble cabin is Hera's, then Posidens, then the Demeter Cabin, then Athena and lastly Ares's cabin. No, it was not painted by a two year old. Calm down, you're hurting my head!" Grace explained almost as quickly as the blonde had asked.

"Oh. Sorry!" Cato shrugged, and surveyed around the camp again.

"Is that a volleyball court? Oh my gosh, it is!" The girl exclaimed, bouncing on her heels.

"Did you know I played volleyball? I was an outside hitter, and pretty good too. My team won the state champs, and got like 12th at nationals. Pretty cool, right? I would really love to go down-"

"Cat? Shut up." Her best friend rubbed her temples, and sighed loudly.

"Sorry. It's just-"

"Shh."

The group walked around cap till the sun started to set and the bugs buzz.

"We better get back." Josh reasoned as they looked out over the ocean.

"But it so _pretty_." Cato sighed, tucking her knees up to her chest.

"Cato, it's going to be dark and then we won't be able to make it to dinner before the sun is out." Andy stood, dusting the sand off of her legs.

"Let's go." Grace held out a wet sandy hand to the girl, bits of salt water dripping off of her fingertips.

Cato grabbed it and followed Andy.

Andy was contemplating what was the smartest move to knock the four off of her tail. She just wasn't used to being around so many people that were... normal. Or at least, as normal as you could get when you were a demigod. The only friend that she had ever had was Cassie. Cassie... well, Andy didn't want to think of that just now when everything seemed to fall into place.

She was still struggling over the fact that she was half _god_. Sure, her dad had always believed in the Greek gods and goddesses, but then again, he was constantly drunk and was never in his right mind.

Andy snapped out of the thoughts that were quickly spiraling down hill when The other three demigods were standing a good few feet in front of her.

"Andy!" Grace called, halting next to a tall pine.

"Coming!" She exclaimed and picked up her pace into a jog. The others matched her speed and they were all panting slightly when they arrived at the dining pavilion.

"We're going to sit at our table while you guys sit at table 11." Grace whispered to both of the girls, just loud enough for them to hear her above the noise of all the other campers. The twins headed over to a table full of blonde's and chestnut haired kids, while Cato and Andy squeezed in on the side of table 11.

"So, you're Cato and Andromeda?" A tall guy, who looked about 18 leaned toward the two girls.

As quick as a blink of an eye, Andy had slammed his head to the table with a loud crack. Everybody in the stinking pavilion looked over to see the new girl whispering something in the Hermes cabin counselour's ear.

"Call me Andy. Don't make that mistake again." The girl with the pixie cut released that boy and huffed, giving Cato a look that said '_The nerve of him._'

Cato's eyes were wide with shock, and she gulped slowly.

"S-s-so, Andy. Where are you from?" Alex or something along those lines, stuttered. A girl with wavy, frizzy chocolate brown hair that fell to about mid back and sky blue eyes chuckled at her flustered counselor.

"Jersey City." She smirked at the 18 year old, and he was about to reply, but was interrupted by cheers from the other campers. In came elfish girls holding platters and platters of steaming food and Cato's stomach growled loudly.

"Hungry, eh? You're gonna have to wait first 'cause we have to take a dump in the fire." The same brown-haired girl smirked and pointed to a large bonfire.

"Did you just say take a dump?" Cato paled considerably.

"That probably sounds weird..." The girl laughed and went on to explain when Andy muttered "You think?" Under her breath.

"We need to dump some food in the bonfire. The gods like the smell."

"The smell?" Cato recoiled slightly. She looked distastefully at the flames, but followed the other campers to the buffet that was set up. Then, somewhat resembling sheep, the all crowded around the fire and dropped something into the fire. They paused muttered something under their breath and went back to their tables. Cato dropped a collection of shrimp into the fire (she never liked seafood, and felt that it seemed fitting that she throw something in the fire that she didn't like) and held her breath doing so. She only let the breath out once she was back at the table, avoiding the smell of burning food.

Andy, on the other hand dropped in a handful of olives, her favorite Oleaceae, into the fire. Curious, she took a deep breath of the fire. Instead of smelling vile, it smelled like everything that the campers had dropped in the fire, complimenting each other in unexpected ways. Suddenly, she felt her feet lifting off of the ground.

Looking down frantically, she noticed there was nothing between her and the ground, and she started spinning slowly. Her head fell back and arms lifted slowly, as if reaching to the heavens. Then, a blinding column of light surrounded her and she collapsed to the ground. She was on her knees, her short hair covering her face.

"Andromeda, stand." Chrion ordered, and her face snapped up. Her thunderstorm gray eyes blazed with a fire Cato had never seen in them before, and she stood slowly.

In her hair, a crown of olive branches was weaved. Her hair was slightly longer, and had blonde streaks. Honey Blonde. Resting on her knees, in her hands, was a celestial bronze dagger. Chiron stepped forward and took the blade from the girl's pale, rough hands. He inspected the hilt and spotted a carving of an owl with a olive branch in it's beak. The leather was a silver-gray color, wound tightly. The half horse moved his gaze to the bronze blade and read aloud;

"Οι πληγές σοφία"

"Wounds to wisdom." Andy translated in a husky voice.

Chiron turned to the campers who were all either mid bite, or watching in doubt or curiosity.

"All hail Andromeda Rodgers, daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, warfare and crafts."

**Sorry, I'll try to make up for the no updates with another update ASAP. I will probably update Monday, or something. I have yet to introduce the sixth demigod, but I have introduced the other Grace! Just hinted at her, so yay! It's going fast, but slow at the sme time, and I'm so excited!**

**Question of the day:**

**What sport to you play? **

**Review!**


	4. Midnight Memory

**Hey Y'all! How's life? Amazing? I should hope so! I'm sorry I didnt' update the day(s) I promised, but I got food poisoning then volleyball and spanish and Psat studying to do and math and- UGH! So, my answer to the question of last chapter is: I play Volleyball (My best position is outside hitter. I'm average height, but I can jump, if I do say so myself) and I swim :D.**

**All of you need to stop everything right now and listen to "Angel With a Shotgun" by The Cab (I don't really like the nightcore version). Its amaze-balls.**

**Question: Are all of you getting those 'Middle School; Save Rafe' stuff on youtube? It's so annoying!**

**Disclaimer: It's on my list of 'Things I Want For My Birthday' but, until then, I still don't own PJO. I wish... you know, I wonder if Uncle Rick actually uses fanfiction... would he still put disclaimers O.o You'd never really know because he could technically get in trouble for not putting them, cause the other people don't know it's him... Then again, I could pretend I was him (though I'm obviously not) and people wouldn't know if I was actually him or not. Anyways, back to the point, I don't own anything you recognize (PJO sturf. Like Rachel.) or any songs I put in this like Little Sally Walker, or 1D, or any other songs. I'll be sure to cite the names.**

"_Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."_

-Aristotle

Andy picked up her not yet unpacked bag. Cato was refusing to talk to her, as she unrolled her sleeping bag. Andy sighed loudly, but Cato didn't look up from her spot of the floor.

"Look- Cato, I'm sorr-" Andy started, pushing back the blonde hair framing her face.

"Save it. At least I get your space on the floor." Cato didn't even look up when she interrupted the other girl. Andy didn't know what was up her butt, but she was being really snappy about the whole 'Athena Thing' as Andy had dubbed it.

"Fine, be that way." Andy muttered under her breath, and swung the backpack onto her shoulder, walking to the cabin door. When she exited the Hermes Cabin, she spotted the Apollo kids carrying music equipment out of their cabin, into the trees. Walking into the grey cabin with simple white curtains and an owl on the door, Andy took a deep breath. She softly pushed open the door, and found a room with bunkbeds pushed against the wall, desks scattered with scrolls and shelves of books and scrolls. Inside, were about twenty kids, all with honey blonde hair, and each kids she saw had gray eyes. They may have had different shades of gray, but it looked like a room full of blonde haired gray eyed twins.

"Hi, I'm... Andy." I gave a small nervous wave. The boy who was standing in the middle of the room turned, with a big smile on his face.

"Hey! I'm Austin Moore, the counselor of the Athena Cabin." He held out an ink stained hand, and Andy shook it uneasily.

"We have a bunk ready for you. Sorry if you wanted a bottom bunk... We only have two currently available." He led the girl to her bunk, where a blue mattress sat. The wall next to it was blank, but there wasn't paint in some spots, showing someone had put pictures there before.

"You should feel honored," Austin told her while he was grabbing some things from a closet. "That was the bunk of Annabeth Chase, a camper here about twenty years ago. We haven't felt the need to use it until now." He dropped silver sheets and a cream colored comforter on the bunk.

"What happened to her?" Andy asked, her voice wavering slightly.

"Oh, nothing bad. She got married to a son of Poseidon named Percy Jackson, one of the greatest demigods to ever walk the earth, and they have two kids." Austin shrugged, and went back to what he was working on before Andy came in. Andy sighed through her nose and starting making her bed. She opened the drawers that were drilled to the side of her bunk, and started placing her clothes and what ever else she had. Getting to the bottom drawer, she place her new dagger and handcuffs in the drawer. It shifted slightly to reveal a little white paper.

Excited, and slightly cautious, Andy put the dagger and handcuffs on her bed. Trying to pry the bottom open with her fingernails, it just shifted side to side. Deciding a better tactic, she pressed in, and slid it sideways. The wood gave way, and the slab slid out of the drawer. There was a picture, slightly faded, of a girl with long curly blonde hair and gray eyes. She was arm in arm with a boy who was about half a foot taller than her with jet black hair and bright green eyes.

Andy flipped the picture over and in tiny, neat handwriting there was a sentence.

"Percy and Annabeth Jackson back from honeymoon." It looked like there was originally a date, something that looked like '8/21/20' and then the next two numbers were smudged.

Andy smiled lightly, and placed the picture back into the secret compartment. She felt as if she had just revealed a picture that was an important part of camp history, and she wanted to keep it as her own little secret. It was hidden for a reason, right?

She placed the dagger and handcuffs back into the drawer, and plopped back onto the bed.

"Cabin 6! We have to go to the campfire!" Austin announced a few minutes later. Andy groaned loudly.

"That means funny songs and stupid dances, right?"

"Some of the songs they play are actual songs, but your description is close enough." A girl next to her agreed.

They trudged to the campfire pit, where a fire was raging.

"Why does it have so many different colors?" Andy asked, watching the greens and pinks and purples of the flame.

"It burns based on the emotions of the campers." The girl whispered back, and they followed Austin to their seats.

Josh and Grace were both sitting near the front of the stage, where the other Apollo kids were strumming guitars. The other cabins started to file in- Zeus, Hades, the list goes on. Lastly, the Hermes cabin came in, like a field of sheep. Cato was near the back, and she decided to sit next to the only person from the Hermes cabin that really seemed to actually be someone she wanted to spend time with- her name was Gracie (Grace, really) Taylor. She was the one who warned Andy and Cato about having to put food in the fire, the one with wavy chocolate brown hair and sky blue eyes.

"So, we get to sing and stuff, right?" Cato asked the brunette, and she nodded her head.

"Geat! I love music!" Cato grinned, flashing a set of straight pearly white teeth. They looked even whiter than normal, because her skin was so tan. It was almost scary, Gracie thought, but she wasn't going to say anything about it.

"Oh! You might be a daughter of Apollo!" Gracie exclaimed, looking at the new girl wwith wide eyes.

"I mean, you totally fit the criteria- blonde-ish hair, pretty eyes, tan!"

"Don't you think that's a bit stero- steroid- whatever that word is? Because Andy is a daughter of Athena and the all have blonde hair, too." Cato struggled to get the sentence out.

"Stereotypical? Well, I guess that's true. I mean, you could be an Ares, or... nope, they all have blue eyes, hm... you could be a daughter of Hermes, too, or like, I don't know." Cato left Gracie to ponder over who her parent was, secretly hoping it was neither Ares nor Hermes.

Chiron clapped twice, and all of the kids got quite, but the fire did go down a little bit, as Gracie noted it usually did.

"Hello Campers! Are you ready for a campfire night?" He asked. A couple kids cheered, and he rolled his eyes.

"I said are you ready for a campfire night?" All of the campers screamed there heads off, knowing that he would keeping asking if they didn't.

"First, this weeks Night Life schedule!" He exclaimed.

"Night Life?" Cato asked out of the side of her mouth.

"We always have a camp activity at night before bed. This is considered Night Life." Gracie whispered back. They were shushed by a girl in front of them, but Gracie just stuck out her tongue in response to the camper.

"So, tomorrow is Monday. We're gonna have a rock climbing competition." There were some boo's and cheers from around the amphitheater.

"Then, Tuesday is a lake party. It's gonna have canoe races, and food and stuff." A girl stood next to Chiron with a mess of bright red hair.

"Wait, it's the middle of the winter..." Cato looked over to Gracie, who just grinned.

"Wednesday is campfire encounter." A loud cheer sounded from the Apollo and Aphrodite cabin. A few Athena cabins were cheering also, but the Ares cabin ground in response.

"Thursday is the teamed Frozen Quest." This time, almost everybody in the camp cheered.

"I am officially confused." Cato informed Gracie, huffing and scowling.

"That's not attractive. We'll tell you what everything is tomorrow, when we have our cabin meeting." Gracie laughed at Cato's expression.

Chiron held up a hand so that everyone got quiet again.

"Friday is... CAPTURE THE FLAG!" He exclaimed. This time, the camp literally went crazy. Everyone screamed, some girls were jumping up and down, hugging each other (cough, cough The Aphrodite Girls. Not that they even played...)

"And finally Saturday is Lite Brite Nite, volleyball version." **(A/N I know that's slightly biased, but then again many of the girl OC's who played sports played volleyball.)**

"Is that what I think it is?" Cato grinned.

"Oh yes. I play soccer, and Lite Brite Nite soccer version is the thing." Gracie answered her. Cato squeaked and her grin grew.

"Alright, now, to our music leaders- the Apollo Cabin!" Chiron sat down again, along with the redhead.

People cheered, but then whispers went around the seats.

"Is that-?"

"I think it is!"

"OMG He's so hot!"

"Is-"

"-Really here? Yes!"

"But I thought he-"

"Who are they talking about? Cato asked Gracie.

"Gods, what's with all the questions?" Gracie snapped.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry." Cato rolled her eyes.

"Fine. You see the kid with the buzz cut and the arrowhead-like body?"

"The one with the guitar and mic?" **(A/N I thought he would be one of those dudes)**

"Him. His name is Kieran Dalca. He's from South Carolina, sweet kid, hot too. No pun intended, by the way. Soccer player, romanian. Well, anyways, he's normally here during the summer, I have no idea what's-so-ever why he's here now. It's really weird. He's been here three years longer than I have, came here when he was ten." Gracie pulled out a leather necklace that held three clay beads.

"Sounds like you know a whole lot about him. Does the soccer chick have a crush?" Cato teased.

"No. If you didn't know your mom, I would think that you're a Aphrodite Airhead." Gracie snapped back.

"Did you just call me an airhead?" Cato asked, giving Gracie a disgusted look.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Gracie just rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. She felt like Elsa from Frozen, thinking _'Don't let her press anymore. Conceal.'_

"I am so not an airhead. Anyway, we are who we are, who we are." Cato turned back to the stage.

_'Did she just quote Little Mix? Who even listens to them anymore?'_

Blaring through the speakers, the Apollo was playing a silly song about a grandma and her armour, and they all pointed to different limbs as they sang about them.

The song ended, and Kieran walked to the mic.

"Hey everyone!" He cried. He wasn't in the middle of the stage, but he might as well been. It was obvious he was the one who held the reigns tonight.

Everyone screamed "Hey, Kier!" back.

He chucked into the microphone.

"So, this is for all you Directioners out there..." (**A/N like Meee!)**He grinned as a bunch of girls screamed their heads off.

_1, 2, 3_

_Straight off the plane to a new hotel_

_Just touched down, you could never tell_

_A big house party with a crowded kitchen_

_People talk shh but we don't listen_

_Tell me that I'm wrong but I do what I please_

_Way too many people in the Addison Lee_

_Now I'm at the age when I know what I need, oh, whoa_

_Midnight memories, oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Baby you and me_

_Stumbling in the street_

_Singing, singing, singing, singing_

_Midnight memories, oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Anywhere we go never say no_

_Just do it, do it, do it, do it_

_5 foot something with the skinny jeans_

_Don't look back, baby follow me_

_I don't know where I'm going but I'm finding my way_

_Same old shh but a different day_

_Tell me that I'm wrong but I do what I please_

_Way too many people in the Addison Lee_

_Now I'm at the age when I know what I need, oh, whoa_

_Midnight memories, oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Baby you and me_

_Stumbling in the street_

_Singing, singing, singing, singing_

_Midnight memories, oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Anywhere we go never say no_

_Just do it, do it, do it_

_You and me and all our friends_

_I don't care how much we spend_

_Baby, this is what the night is for, oh, oh, oh_

_I know nothing's making sense_

_For tonight let's just pretend_

_I don't wanna stop so give me more, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh_

_Midnight memories, oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Baby you and me_

_Stumbling in the street_

_Singing, singing, singing, singing_

_Midnight memories, oh, oh, oh, oh._

_Anywhere we go never say no_

_Just do it, do it, do it, do it_

"**Midnight Memories" by One Direction**

"Great!" He exclaimed into the microphone, and everyone cheered. It was like attending a concert, at least that's what Cato thought.

"Now, we're singing 'Good Girls are Bad Girls'!" He strummed his guitar.

**L-I-N-E-B-R-E-A-K What's that spell? Linebreak! Woooo**

Grace followed her brother out of the amphitheater, still giddy from her performance of 'A Drop in the Ocean' by Ron Pope. People clapped her back and she was feeling like a mini-celebrity.

"Twin." Josh snapped her out of her resolve.

"Hmm?" She asked, rolling the bead on her necklace between her fingers. She had four, though she had came to camp with Josh when they were thirteen, about a month after their birthday (the summer solstice, mind you).

"You did good." He nudged his sister, and she rolled her green eyes.

"So, how do you think Cato and Andy are doing?" He asked, slinging an arm over her shoulders.

"Cat's probably being her stereotypical Californian girl self. Andy... I don't really know her." She stepped into their cabin and greeted her half-siblings. The Apollo cabin was huge on the inside, with the domed roof glass so that during the day you could see the sun.

She went to the 'Female' side of the cabin, where a hammock was slung from the roof. She preferred hammock over bunk normally, and so she just grabbed her Pjs and headed to the showers.

She ran into the washhouse, and swung around the corner, her chestnut hair swinging with her.

"AH!" She heard a familiar voice scream and she slammed full force into a body.

"Hey- oh." Grace winced as she saw her best friend with her butt on the floor.

"It's fine." Cato rolled her eyes, and grabbed the hand that Grace had extended. She pulled her up with too much force, and Cato flew into Grace again.

"Oh my gods, that hurt." Grace rubbed her forehead and laughed with her friend.

"Sorry- that totally was a fail." Both girls giggled.

"I wish I could just break down these walls so that I can see what's coming around the corner. I've done that way too many times." Grace suddenly stopped rubbing her head.

"Did you just hear what I heard?"

"Oh yes I did-"

"_Diana,_

_Let me be the one to light a fire inside those eyes,_

_You've been lonely,_

_You don't even know me,_

_But I can feel you crying,_

_Diana,_

_Let me be the one to lift your heart up and save your life,_

_I don't think you even realize baby you'd be saving mine._

_Diana_

_It's only been four months but_

_You've fallen down so far._

_How could someone mislead you at all?_

_I wanna reach out for you,_

_I wanna break these walls,_

_I speak a-"_

"SHUT UP!"

**Ok, I know, I know, it's a really crappy chapter. I just had serious writers block... I just didn'**

**t know what to write. I did manage to introduce all of the main characters!**

**Question of the Update (QotU):**

**Who are/is your favorite artist/ band? There can be more than one.**

**Also ,who do you think should go on the two quests together? The groups are three and three, so yah :D**

**By the way, check out my story called "Ice Warrior". It's a ROTG and Frozen one-shot Xover.**

**Please Please Please Review!**

**XD **


	5. Anchored

**Hey Y'all! How's it going? I feel like I'm blogging :P So, anyways, summer is about to end! Cue groans and death. Like, no you don't just do that. Anyways, I really loved all the reviews!**

**My response to my question is really quite extensive. The (or at least some) bands I like are The Beach Boys (I love them sooo much) One Direction, 5sos, The Vamps, Imagine Dragons, Fall Out Boy, MKTO, and Swedish House Mafia. If you can't see, I like boy bands. Blushes, embarrassed. Some artist that I can think of are Christina Perri, Bruno Mars, Iggy Azalea, Some Demi Lovato, and Jacquie Lee. Sometimes, I really like some songs from people, like 'Angel W/ a Shotgun' and 'Eye of the Tiger' and 'Sweater Weather' and 'Shower'.**

**On a (somewhat) more serious note, I'm feeling pretty good about my updating. I don't really have a schedule, but I think I will if I get ahead of myself and just write a bunch of chapters. I have like everything planned out! :D Go me! It should be twenty chapters (they should start getting longer) unless I feel the need to change that number. I will warm you if that happens. I hoping to be done by mid-September, but who knows, right?**

**Also, did any of you notice the cover?! I drew it, so it's kind of crappy, but who cares, right? I'll shout out to the person who can correctly guess who is who! Remember the characters are Cato, Grace, Gracie, Josh, Andy, and Kieran. I think I've described all of the characters, though it might be pretty hard since I didn't put up the colored version... oops! I think I may put it up, I don't know. But don't wait, it might take a while.**

**I'm introducing all of the minor characters in this chapter, and all except tree recurring characters, and I think I probably should've introduced the Khione kids better, but whatever.**

**After that extremely long Authors Noter, Disclaimer Time!; I do not own anything PJO. I know, I just said it. BTW, it's my birthday month! YAYY!**

"CAT! GET UP!" A shrill voice screamed right next to the sleeping blonde's ear.

"AH!" She screamed, and shot up in her sleeping bag. Sweat trickled down her wrinkled fore head and she panted noisily. The girl next to her smirked, and stood up from the crouching position. She was about average height for her age, being 5 feet 5 inches at fourteen, but she sure didn't act like it. Today, her blonde hair was in a simple pony tail, and her blue-grey eyes twinkled in amusement at the sixteen year old lying on the ground.

"Jazzy, I swear." Cato huffed and crawled out of the bed. Her hair was everywhere, resembling that of Anna in Frozen's when she woke. Jazmine Chase just chuckled, shaking her head at the teen.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she took a step foreword, to find there was no wood beneath her feet.

"Shoot!" She caught herself on the side of the real wood, and looked up, fury in her eyes, to the laughing fourteen year old.

She hauled herself up out of the hole, and when she did, she looked down at the ground. The wood looked normal enough, but when she tried to tap it, her hand went right through it.

"What the Hades?" Cato looked up at Jazzy, who was trying to keep a straight face, but failing miserably.

"Hecate Kids." Was all she said, grinning.

"Jazzy!" Cato glared with her sea foam green eyes.

"Jazzy, I told you not to let Justin and Amelia in here!" Came a voice from a dark corner of the room. Out walked Gracie Taylor, her hair tamed into a messy bun. She was wearing an over sized brown sweater, dark wash boyfriend cut jeans and a pair of Chuck Taylors.

"Who is Justin, and who is Amelia?" Cato asked as she searched through her bag for clothes. The day before, she had gone to the boutique that the Aphrodite cabin ran and bought everything she liked. Apparently, they had started it because a lot of kids came to camp with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and since the Ploutus Cabin (he was the minor god of wealth; a son of Demeter, Cato had learned) had began a local drachma bank that loaned drachma, new campers could survive with more than three 'Camp Half-Blood' t-shirts that they got when they arrived, and the clothes they came with. The son of Aphrodite that had told her all of this, Nick Jones, also added that a lot of people didn't look good in 'Princeton Orange'.

"Justin Caviness and Amelia Figueroa, children of Hecate, goddess of magic." Gracie rolled her eyes and turned, making her bed.

"I'm personally surprised Helena wasn't with them." Jazzy shrugged, and went to her bunk.

"Helena?" Cato asked warily, finally deciding on an outfit.

"Helena Star-Catcher-"

"Is that her real last name?"

"No. She hated her family, so she changed it. Something to do with a blessing from Artemis or something. Anyways, she's the same age as Justin, 15, and those three always do everything together. Amelia is 13, almost 14, and acts older than she is. She's the girl you pointed out yesterday with the purple highlight and brown hair." Jazmine also started making her bed.

"Oh! Why did they do this?" Cato asked, pointing to the faux wood.

"They love to prank almost as much as we do." Jazzy gave Cato a lopsided grin.

"Ah. Well, enough of that, I'm gonna go change." She grabbed her pile of clothes and headed to the girl's wash house where she had ran into Grace yesterday after taking her shower.

Stepping into the changing stall, she changed into her clothes and walked out. Right when she was bout to exit the wash house she heard a wolf whistle. Spinning on a heel, she turned to face a big buff girl who was wearing a pair of baggy grey gym shorts, and an oversized t shirt. Her hair was cut sloppily, shorter than Andy's and was black, but had been died with blonde, brown and light pink highlights.

"Hel..lo?" Cato asked, the girl, and the girl smirked.

"Looking good. Call me JJ." She held out a hand and Cato gave her a weak smile.

"The yoga pants really hug your-"

"JJ!" Another girl cried, coming up from behind. She placed a hand on JJ's shoulder and rolled her eyes at Cato.

"I'm Nicole James. Sorry about that, she's worse then some of the boys." The girl gave JJ a pointed look. JJ's arm wrapped around Nicole's waist and Cato gave them an odd look.

"But seriously though. Did Nick help you put that outfit together?" Nicole blew a strand her scruffy brown hair that had fallen out of her low pony tail out of her face.

Cato looked down at her clothes. She was wearing a large maroon sweater that hang off of one shoulder, revealing he white straps of her bra and tank top. The bottom rim stopped mid-thigh, and led to her tight black yoga pants. She took a slight uneasy step back, her brown leather paced combat boots crunching the dirt. She adjusted the maroon beanie started to reply.

"Um-"

"Cato!" A voice called behind her. She spun away from the girls and saw Andy. Breathing a sigh of relief, she waved goodbye to the girls and ran over to the short girl. She stood almost a foot below Cato, at a mere five foot one inch.

"I'm sorry about yesterday..." Cato trailed off, and looked down at her boots in shame.

"Oh." Andy just shrugged, but didn't actually forgive the girl.

"Andy, Cat!" Grace ran up to them, her hair in a pony tail, bouncing as she took each step.

"How's your first night been?" She asked, slinging one arm on each girl's shoulders. Andy shrugged it off, and Grace gave the action a small frown.

"Pretty good, but Axel snored and the floor was hard." Cato walked beside Grace. Grace let her head back and laughed. Andy snorted, and didn't say anything. Grace was about to respond to Cato when suddenly they heard a scream.

"Ah!" Both girls turned to see Andy and another person on the floor. Andy was beneath him, as it was male, and she could feel his body weight crushing her.

She tried to struggle underneath but wasn't able.

"Oh my gods I am so sorry!" He got up off of her and held out a chocolate colored hand. She let him pull her up, and ignored the fact that her heart fluttered slightly at the sound of his british accent. Andy dusted off the dirt from her back and rubbed her head where it hit the dirt.

"It's totally _not_ fine. What are you, blind?" She asked, glaring into his eyes, black against grey.

"No, I'm just tall. And you're short." He answered. Cato giggled, as he was a foot and about an inch taller than Andy.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Andy asked in an accusing way.

"I couldn't see you because I was looking behind as I jogged, and then I turned and your short head was under and out of my line of vision."

"That isn't even possible! And stop calling me short!" Andy crossed her arms with a huff, her neck starting to hurt from the strain of looking up to him.

"What are you, 4 foot 3?"

"No! I'm five foot one- stop trying to distract me! I may be ADHD, but I'm not stupid!" She stomped her foot like a little child.

The boy's eye's twinkled in amusement. He held out a hand for her to shake.

"Seager Benteke, but friends call me Sea or SB."

"Then I'll be calling you Seager."

"I like you, you've-"

"CAMPERS! CABIN INSPECTION WILL BEGIN IN FIVE MINUETS!" A girl with long silky dark hair called.

"Which Cabin is inspecting?" They heard a kid from Cabin 5 ask.

"Khione." Came the reply. Grace heard the kid curse, and grinned. That meant Alejandra and Jacque were inspecting. They were an interesting pair. Seager and Andy continued arguing, while Cato asked Grace;

"So, who's JJ and Nicole?"

"Oh! You met them?"

"Yah."

"Oh, well JJ is a daughter of Ares and Nicole is a daughter of Iris, so it doesn't matter."

"What doesn't matter?"

"Oh, they're a couple."

"There a- Ohhhh." Cato suddenly realized why JJ was checking her out in the first place.

"Why?" Grace watched her friend out of the corner of her bright green eyes.

"Well, JJ said something about my yoga pants, I was just confused." Grace laughed and answered her friend;

"Ha! Don't mind her." Grace pulled her friend into the Apollo cabin.

"Welcome to my- our humble home." She gestured to the Apollo Cabin and watched her friends eyes widen in awe. The middle of the cabin had a stage with a bunch of instruments in a huddle around it. Kids were sitting on their bunks/ hammocks, tuning instruments, another was pacing and muttering under his breath, a crumpled paper in his hands. A huge armiore sat on the left of the cabin, MEDICINE CABINET carved into the wood.

"What's it like to have so many half siblings?" Cato asked, her voice soft, longing laced in her tone as her voice cracked slightly.

"Oh, Cat! You're going to have half siblings too!" Grace sympathetically.

"Are you sure? I may be the kid of some loner minor god who doesn't have any other children, and who Chiron didn't even know existed." Cato shrugged as if it was no big deal, but Grace knew better.

"That's not true, and you know it. How about we just wait it out."

"I don't know..."

"Cat, snap out of it."

"But-"

"Cato Bethany Laughlin, don't give me that! You're scaring me. What happened to the californian girl that only cared about herself, her friends and her Iphone?" Grace scolded.

"Hey! I'm not _that_ shallow!" Cato gave Grace a watery smile. Grace looked pointedly at the blonde.

"Fine, but I'm working on it." Cato rolled her eyes.

**LINEBREAK! 'CAUSE I LOOKED LIKE AN IDIOT WHEN MY EXTENSIVE ENTER PRESSING DIDN'T WORK. **

Grace and Cato raced across the courtyard and laughed loudly. Campers stopped to watched, amused, as the watched Joshua Summers running after them, in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

"GRACE! CATO! GIVE MY CLOTHES BACK!" He hollered, dust kicked up in his wake. Grace cackled and picked up her pace, pulling her friend along. Josh tripped on his no longer white towel, and tumbled. That only caused the (slightly immature) girls to laugh harder. Cato just clung to her friend to keep herself up, and Grace leaned against a tree.

"Poor kid." A low voice stated next to them.

"WHAT THE HADES!" Grace yelped, jumping back off the tree and dropping her brothers navy blue boxers and the ground. She glared at where the voice came from, but didn't see anybody.

"Who's there? I have a- a weapon and I'm not afraid to use it!" She warned, pulling out her short celestial sword. There was a deep chuckle from the darkness, and it was like someone stepped out of mid-air.

He was a little shorter than average than a normal male, standing a n inch over Grace, and an inch under Cato. He had short black hair, and black onyx eyes, and not bulging, but toned muscle. He was wearing a black leather jacket, the black t shirt underneath visible. Cato tried not to snort at that fashion statement, as she surveyed his black jeans and black combat boots. Basically, he was just a lot of black, down to the fingerless gloves that he wore, and a (guess what color... times up! You got it right;) black and silver crucifix necklace was barely noticeable next to the silver zipper of his black jacket. Truthfully, Cato was surprised that he wasn't wearing black nail polish and black eyeliner.

"Right. And I have one, too." He drew the black blade and spun it casual.

"Whoa there, Coco. Put the toothpick back in it's sheath." Cato took a cautious step away from the stranger.

"Coco?" Grace and the boy asked at the same time.

"Coco Chanel." Cato rolled her light green eyes as if that explained everything.

"What does a fancy brand have to do with anything?" grace asked, truly worried for Cato, thinking the ADHD had really gotten to her head... not that it wasn't already there.

"She always wore all black. Duh." Cato turned her attention back to the boy in question.

"Well, what's your name?" She asked him.

"Zyon." He answered, but his voice went dry as if he hadn't spoke it in years. Maybe he hadn't.

"That's it?" Josh asked from behind, after snatching his clothes from Cato's hand and the ground.

"Yes..." Zyon looked lazily over at the other boy.

"No last name? Or anything?" Grace added to her brother's question.

"Nope. Do you have a last name?" Zyon asked, as if it was normal not to have one.

"Yah. Summers." Grace looked at him with an odd look.

"Who even has a last name?" He scoffed.

"Touche." Cato laughed humorously at her implied joke.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Grace asked, stepping foreward and placing a hand on his forehead. The black haired boy stiffened, as Grace exclaimed;

"Oh my gods, you're burning up!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the shadows and towards the infirmary.

"Thanks for my clothes." Josh sarcastically muttered under his breath.

"Oh, my pleasure." Cato gave him a sickly sweet smile.

"I think I heard Henry Eyron calling you." He rolled his bright green eyes, and headed back to the washrooms to change, water fling from his chestnut and amber hair as he shook it like a dog. Cato rolled her eyes, and headed to cabin nine.

The door was open and inside Cato could see everyone inside running around like crazy, grease and ash covering most of them.

"Knock, knock." She pushed the door open a little more.

"Hey... you!" A girl that looked at least two years older than Cato waved. It was obvious she didn't remember her name.

"Hey. I heard a Henry Eyron was looking for me?" She asked, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly.

"Cato Laughlin, right?" A kid four years older than Cato, with a five o'clock shadow visible on his chin stepped out of the crowd of campers.

"Yah?"

"Great! Chiron wanted me to take you and Andy to the weapon shed." The wiped his hands on a greasy cloth hanging off of a bunk, and led the way out of the cabin and onto the metal front porch.

"She should be in the cabin- it's her cabin's free time." We headed to the grey cabin, the white curtains hanging in the window swishing slightly as our steps were heard on the stairs.

"ANDY! YOUR BLONDE FRIEND AND EYRON ARE HERE!" There was a shout inside. The door swung open, and Andy was watching the two quizzically.

"I need to get you both weapons." He told Andy simply, then spun on his heel and headed to the armory.

"We haven't been to this part of camp..." Cato whispered uneasily to Andy. Andy nodded, but they both fell silent as the arena came into view. Through the columns, they could see the Dionysus Cabin slashing at dummies, and the instructor was a blonde haired boy, who shouted orders for the cabin to do.

"The armory is up ahead." Henry pointed to a large barn-like structure. He opened the door with a loud creak, and Cato paled considerably.

"I already have a dagger though." Andy held up the dagger that had been given to her by her mouther. Cato tried to ignore the monster of jealousy that roared in her chest.

"You need personalized armour. And a sheath." Henry explained, while showing of the walls of weapons. The left wall was covered in swords, daggers, arrows, bows, spears, just about any hand held weapon imaginable. The wall on the far end held saddles and full animal armour, except for a small door. The right wall was covered in magical weapons, like a shotgun, and something that looked mysteriously like a flip phone.

"Cool." Cato managed to stutter as she grabbed the phone and flipped it open. She dropped it in shock to find it had turned into a club.

"Holy..." She took a step away from the big metal- lined club.

"Most of the weapons are disguised as something else." Henry took a cheap-looking silicon bracelet off of the wall, and it turned into a calvary sword in the matter of seconds.

"What about those?" Andy pointed to the weapons on the left wall.

"Some of 'em do. Most of them actually have fancy scabbards that disguise them.

"What?"

Henry grabbed a big bronze sword, and demonstrated, place it in the scabbard that was tied to I. After he tied it to his waist, it flickered, then made a snapping noise. Suddenly, Cato blinked and it looked like one of those stupid chains that the sketchy looking young men that hang out in dark alleys wear, the ones that hand off of their jeans that are normaly around their knees, not their waist,

"Oh." She surveyed the blades while Andy started talking to Henry.

"So where is the human armour?" She asked, spinning in a full weapon, making sure she didn't miss the armour. Henry pointed to the door;

"It's all in there. You can go in while I watch Cato. Judging on what she's done previously, I wouldn't exactly trust her in a room with a thousand different and equally deadly weapons." Andy chuckled at his response, remembering this morning when Cato had set off the land mines in the Ares cabin (don't ask).

"I'll stay here, I'll probably need help deciding anyways, and you obviously know more about this stuff than I do.

"Oo look at this!" She pulled out a long thin calvary sword, and spun around.

"DUCK!" Henry hollered and both he and Andy dropped to the ground as Cato swung the long sword above their heads.

"Oops! Sorry about that!" The blonde giggled after the sword knocked into a shelf, and a few blades were knocked off of it. She placed the sword back where she got it and went to pick up the other blades. Henry rushed slash tumbled foreward to help her. Personally, Andy thought it was to make sure she didn't almost chop their heads off again.

They put all the blades back, but a silver glint caught Cato's eye, in the back, dark parts of the shelf.

She grabbed it and blew off the dust, surprised with the thickness of the blade. She noticed that the handle looked odd, like two handles stuck together.

"How is this supposed to work?" She asked, studying it.

"Oh- thats- your not supposed to- never mind. It's twin daggers. Pull the handles apart. They've been there so long, I think the sheaths are stuck together." Henry demonstrated by taking the daggers from her hands and pulled them apart. After a weird sound that sounded like opening a persistant package, they sheaths came apart.

Cato took the blades from the son of Hephastus and pulled one out. It was celestial bronze, but a little shinier and light colored than the bronze normally was. It's handle was coiled silver, and the cross guard was shaped almost like flower petals. The blade started about an inch wide, but then it came in, till it was about ¾ of an inch thick, and than went out again. It formed a sharp tip, though only one side was sharp. There was a design that started at the bottom of the blade, and went up the knife. When it was about three fourths of the knife up, it swirled closed. In that design were the words; 'αγκυροβολημένα'

"Ankyrovoli̱ména" Cato read aloud, then translated it to english.

"Anchored."

"Yah. You want them? Let me see you hold them." Cato pulled out both blades and held them in her hands. They looked light in her hands and fit the handle was the right size- not too big, but not too small. The blades felt sturdy, unlike the long calvary sword that she had just put up.

"Hmm... I can see you fighting with it. They suit you."

"What fancy ability do they have?" Cato asked, as Andy studied her own blade.

"The sheaths look like leather bracelets to mortals, and if you had to go through security, the metal will be undetectable." Cato beamed at the daggers, and Andy couldn't help but feel a bit cautious about the fact that Henry was giving the girl weapons.

"Now, onto the armoury." He lead them into the next room. Inside, there was rows and rows of tables of manikins, displaying armour.

"The left is womens." Henry gestured to the female-looking manikins.

"Oh."

A few minuets later, Henry heard a girly squeal following 'Oh my gods, this is so _cute_!"

"Are you sure she's not a daughter of Aphrodite?" He asked Andy who snorted behind him.

"Yah, she has pictures of her mum, and they are almost identical- I'm pretty sure Aphrodite isn't a photographer."

"A photographer?"

"She does photography for surfboard advertisements, and surf wear."

"Oh. That actually explains a lot." Henry went over to the squealing girl, who was admiring a leather outfit. It had four gold buckles in the from, and resembled a corset with breastplates. It had a leather pant armour and the shoulder plates, and leather that went all the way down the arms and ended like a fingerless glove, circling the thumb and making a triangle on the back of the hand.

"Try it on."

"On top of my clothes?"

"Duh!" He rolled his eyes, when he heard Andy call out;

"I found some armour I like!" He headed over the the metal section- it was more for people who were on the front line- leather armour was thick, and more for horseback riders and runners.

It was silver, and stiff, and when the limbs moved, it clanked slightly. The top of the arms were covered, but then it buckled at the forearm.

"Why do we even need armour?" Andy asked, knowing that if they went on a quest they wouldn't need it.

"Capture the flag, and big battles."

"Have big battles happened before?" She raised a black-blonde eyebrow.

"Yah. The most recent was the Titan War and the Giant War." Henry shrugged it off as if a huge battle wasn't a big deal. Andy, surprised, took the armour off of the manikin and put it on just as Cato came back, the leather in her arms.

"It fits well. Can I keep it?" She asked, grinning.

"Yup. Andy, that looks fine." He nodded in approval at the fit and then helped Andy out of the armour.

"So, what's the story behind my blade?" Cato asked, studying Henry's face.

"How do you know it has a story?" He asked back.

"Gracie. Anyway, I know there is something behind these?" She held out the daggers.

"Um well, story time." He sat down on a chest covered in something that look mysterious like lion fur.

Andy and Cato both sat next to him.

"These daggers were a gift to the camp a few thousand years."

"From whom?" Cato asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I was getting there. These daggers are from the bottom of the sea." Henry waited for what he said to sink in.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. The bottom of the sea?"

"Yes. The original metal was sent from the telekines to create Dolphinus's weapon- he's the god of dolphins, by the way- but they decided not to use the bronze. It was created to not rust, and to always sink to the bottom of the ocean where merpeople would be there to retrieve it. The metal was put away at the cyclops forges, not to be touched for many years. Then, a merman, I'm not sure of his title, found the metal. He found it gorgeous, and made the blade of these daggers. He named it 'Anchored' because of it's ability to sink. He tumbled it for what is rumored a century and when it came out it was smooth and shiny. Then, he made the sharp edges, and the daggers that could cut through any density, were put to rest, as the merpeople do not believe in the use of daggers. Then, when a hero rescued a merperson dear to the merman's heart, he gifted them with the daggers. The demigod was a son of Apollo, thus not using the dagger, he gave them to the armoury." Henry finished his tale, and Cato had a dreamy look in her eye while Andy's forehead was crinkled with thought.

"Wait, so there is such thing as mermaids?"

"Yes."

"So, like, does Ariel exist?" Cato asked, her green eyes holding hope.

"No, of course not! Fairy tales do not exist." Henry scoffed

"But-"

"-Great. Now, I'm pretty sure the Hermes cabin is at the stables, about to start pegasus riding, and the Athena cabin is in the arena."

**Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review ;D**

**Oh, and I promise everything will speed up very soon... mwahaha. Guys, guess what, guess what, guess what?! I ALREADY HAVE THE SHIP NAMES ALL PLANNED OUT AND THEY'RE TOTES ADORBS! Haha, my inner Aphrodite is showing. I promise I don't usually say stuff like that. BTW, you guys should watch The 100 foot journey it is AMAZING! **

**QotU: How old do you think I am?**

**Also, don't forget to guess who-is-who in the picture! **


	6. The Fall

**Let us all pause for a second and just pause. Just stop everything... AND BASK IN THE PERFECT AMAZINGNESS OF ALEXANDER LUDWIG! Oh my gosh, I just swooned like twenty times when watching the "When The Game Stands Tall" trailer. Like, how does that even happen? I think everyone can tell I'm a girl, LOL. I just love him! Haha, just kidding. Not really. **

**So the answer of my last question is... I'm not gonna tell you! Sorry about that, I just wanted to see what age I looked like (through my writing of course). Of course, only one person guessed (thank you, scrawlx1012), and it was kinda close. I read every single review, and I really enjoy seing them, so just keep doing that. **

**By the way, I'm going on vacay, so I may or may not be able to update chapter 7 or 8 this week, and I come back the 14th, so I'll try to get one in!**

The only sound in the arena was the sound of metal on metal. It had been a week since Cato and Andy arrived as new campers, and they had already fallen into the flow of things. The weather was still cold enough for jackets, sweaters, jeans and boots, but the sun was shining bright, and melting a bit of the pristine snow.

The Hermes cabin and the Hades cabin watched as the two demigods fought, and gasped as the sword pressed against Axel Beaver's throat. He gulped slowly, and dropped his sword.

It was as if everybody froze and couldn't even take a breath.

The black haired boy lowered his blade, and rose an eyebrow at the crowd watching.

"Well?"

Everybody started either clapping or rushing to Axel.

"Anybody else want to compete against me?" Zyon asked, taunting the Hermes cabin. Most of them stared at their shoes, or looked everywhere but Zyon's dark onyx eyes.

"How about the other newbie? She's been here longer than him, so technically speaking, she should be better!" One girl from the Hades cabin called out. They all cheered, and Cato sighed loudly. The Hermes cabin mournfully patted her on her back, their dusty hands marking her leather armour. She walked up to the weapon table and only one person, Gracie, realised that she already had her twin daggers strapped under her raised one chocolate eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Cato picked up individual blades, and tested their weight.

"Enough, Blondie! Just choose." She grabbed a gladius sword, that was obviously not going to work with her.

Zyon took his fighting stance, but Cato held up a hand for him to relax. She place the sword on the ground and...

fixed her hair into a bun.

"It just got real." A short black haired boy standing next to Gracie muttered under his breath. The campers around him chuckled.

"You done, Miss California?" Zyon teased, swinging his sword in figure-eights.

"Yes, actually." She took a poor fighting stance, and Gracie saw Zyon smirk as he took the first swing.

"What are you playing at?" Gracie asked herself and tried to see how she could manage to win with this tactic.

'_Maybe she just wants to have an excuse whenever she loses.'_

The swords clanged against each other, but Gracie saw Cato's hand have to adjust every few second to avoid slicing herself, obviously not used to the weight of the sword. Zyon, it seemed, had spotted it also.

The day he had arrived, he had been brought to Chiron.

Chiron had announced, quite mysteriously after a five hour conference with the kid, that he was a child of Hades, and that he was, infact, a demigod.

Zyon moved in the Hades cabin, and was awing everybody in the short time that he was at camp. He seemed to have many children of Hades' powers, and he used it to his advantages. Almost everybody could claim seeing, or being someone scared shish kebab-less by him.

Personally, Gracie thought his sudden appearance was slightly sketchy, but she didn't vocalize her worries.

He did some fancy manouver and the sword loosened and fell out of Cato's hand. She lunged for the blade, but that gave Zyon enough time to cover her and point his sword her neck. Her head was right next to his feet and she looked up from the dirt.

The Hades kids scoffed at her appearance, the blonde hair falling out of her bun, dirt smudged across her nose. It looked like she was planking but then her head fell down in defeat and Zyon laughed.

"Not so pretty now, Miss Cali?" One cabin 13 camper taunted loudly. His siblings laughed, and Gracie couldn't help but think _'They're worse than the Ares cabin'_ before she decided that she would go help her friend up for the dirt. Right when she was about to, Zyon put his sword away, and put a dirty boot on Cato's back, as if she was just another thing that he had conquered. His siblings laughed at the gesture, and the Hermes cabin bristled. She may have not been their real sibling, but she was close , Zyon was on the ground, and there was a veil of dust in the air and the cabins couldn't see anything.

When the dust settled, their positions had switched, Zyon flat on his back with his sword on the other side of the arena, and Cato had her knee on his chest, the twin daggers at an x at his throat

"CHEAT!" The Hades cabin cried.

"No! He just was stupid and didn't realize she had other weapons on her!" The Hermes cabin called back.

"Cheating!"

"If it was a real fight, she wouldn've been able to do that. No rules on the battle field, remember?"

"She is still che-"

"I won fair and square, you sore losers." Cato called back and picked up Zyon's blade.

She handed him the sword, and picked up the sword she had used before hand.

"Don't even try. I heard you mentally call 'Touche'." She told him, and she heard him stagger up.

"But you aren't even better at swordplay than I am!" Zyon complained, resembling a young child.

"Ah, but if this was a real battle, I would've still beaten you." Cato rolled her eyes again.

"No, I would've already chopped your head off." He argued, as the cabins huddled.

"No, I would've reacted faster if it was real. And I would've tried harder with the sword. I was really just waiting for you knock the thing out my hands so that it didn't look on purpose." She gave the black-haired boy a pointed look, and went over the Hermes cabin's huddle.

"So, today is the rock climbing slash obstacle course." Axel had recovered from his fight, and was looking down at his campers.

"We're about to elect who we want to represent us. We have four spots, and which ever two cabins win get the flag for next weeks capture the flag game. So... first, who volunteers as somebody? Of course, as Cato actually isn't claimed yet, so she's already nominated." Axel then raised his hands, showing the group that he wanted to compete. Jazmine also rose her hand, as did Gracie. A few other rose their hands, and then Axel did a head count.

"Me, Cato, Gracie, Jazzy, Joshua, Roth, Marius, Alana... nobody else?" Everybody shook their heads.

"Alright who wants me?" 3 people rose their hands.

"Cat?" 10 people rose their hands. Axel scowled, but continued.

"Gracie?" 6 people.

"Jazzy?" The process went on until all 36 campers had voted.

" Marius, Jazzy, Gracie and lastly Cato will be our competitors. Now, off to the pavilion!" He rose his sword ahead, and they all cheered in response.

It was sunday in th camp, and nothing really odd had happened, which made the fact that something odd was, in fact, happening. The Hermes and Hades cabin merged with the Athena cabin, where Andy was chatting away with Johanna, one of her siblings.

"Hey, Andy!" Cato seperated the crowd to get the the girl. Andy rolled her thunderstorm grey eyes at Johanna, and turned, a smirk playing at her lips.

"Hey. So, what are you talking to me for?" Andy asked, referring to the week, where Cato didn't try to talk to her once.

"I'm so sorry! It was just really busy, and I was trying to get settled and I was trying to-"

"Ok, I get it, I get it." Andy avioded another eyeroll.

"So, who're you guys sending?" Cato was bouncing on her heels, but Andy straightened up, so that she was actually the five foot one inch tht she claimed to be.

"Johanna, Me, Rory and Lewis." Andy boasted, positively beaming.

"Congrats! Who're the other people?" Cato asked, smiling back.

Johanna choked on her own spit and a boy next to her awkwardly patted her back.

"Well, that's Johanna..."

"Oh! Hey, I'm Cato." Cato held out a hand, and Johanna shook the duty, but still manicured hand.

"You sure she isn't an Aphrodite?" Johanna asked loudly. Most of the people around them chuckled, and Cato gave the girl a pointed look.

"Just because I act like a girl doesn't mean I'm an Aphrodite! Seriously, I've been asked that so many times, I should just get it tattooed on my forehead!" Cato huffed, and turned to Gracie who was giggling behind her hand. The three cabins then crashed (not literally, of course) into the Apollo cabin, whom were soaking with sweat and dirt.

"Archery?" Gracie asked the first Apolloian who came upon her, who just so happened to be the kid that she had been gossiping about to Cato.

"Yup." Kieran swished his hair (or at least tried; it's hard to flick hair that's half an inch long) to the side, and the sweat flicked onto Gracie.

"EW! You're so gross!" The girl tried to wipe it off, and then tried to smear it on the sweaty boy, but failed miserably, as it just made her hand even more sweaty.

"Ew! Gracie!" Cato squeled as her friend tried to smear the wet liquid on her armour. Gracie chased Cato around Keiran, in a teasing fashion.

"Cat! I'm gonna get you!" Gracie grabbed her friend and laughed loudly. Kieran raised an elegant eyebrow and watched the girls in amusement.

"Did you say her name is Cat?" He asked, eyeing the blonde.

"No. It's Cato." She held out a hand to shake Kierans, but then decided against it when she saw the sweat on his fingers.

"Cato? Really? I always took that as a male name." His eyebrows furrowed slightly, as the group headed to the dining pavilion.

"Cato (Kay-toe) is the male pronunciation, while Cato (Kah-toe) is more feminine." She shrugged, and Gracie rolled her sky blue eyes.

"My best friends name is Cato." He added.

"Really? Where did you say you where from again?" Cato asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Arcadia Lakes, South Carolina. I'm never here during the summer, but something happened near Arcadia Lakes that involved monsters so we decided I should probably come here this part of the school year..." Kieran shrugged, the muscles in his arm shifting visibally under his skin.

"I was about to ask that. I see you still managed to get a bad soccer tan?" Gracie nodded to the sock and farmer's tan that he sported while wearing basketball shorts and a muscle shirt. Kieran chuckled and nodded.

"Yah, but if I remember correctly, you have a bad soccer tan too?"

"Ha, it got worse during the season."

"So how did you're team do?"

"We got third in nationals! Isn't that great! Though, we are still getting the Nike ID cleats, but not for free, since we didn't win." Gracie rolled her eyes.

"Seriously? I always wanted a pair of those. Wait was the score?"

"1-2. We only lost because they called a hand ball after a score, and it _so_ wasn't-" Gracie's eyes glazed over with the memory.

"Seriously? That sucks. Where were they from?" Keiran asked, and Cato zoned out of the soccer talk.

"It was against the Housten team. The Jacksonville team won the entire thing, and Tallahasse, Florida got fourth. We were close to a mercy roll when we played them, at 6-2." Kieran nodded in understanding.

"Who was that one offense on the Jacksonville team? Allie Smith, right?" He kicked a pebble with his toe as the cabins climbed the pavilion.

"Yah. Shes so perfect, it's not even fair! But that Tallahasse team was the worst to play. They stunk _so_ bad, and they had like red color contacts, which is really creepy. The ironic part about that is the fact that their team name is the 'Sunshines' or something along those lines.

"Ha, yah. Florida seems to be doing something right, though."

"I'm surprised the altitude didn't get to them, since it was North Carolina, but I guess it does get really hot down there." Kieran shrugged, but waved as the parted to go to their respectable cabins.

"You _so_ like him." Cato accused as she slid onto the bench.

"No, I don't! Geez, what is it with you?" Gracie crossed her hands in defense. Cato rolled her eyes, and muttered something underneath her breath that sounded suspisously like '_sure'_. *

**Linebreak time! Now, to the competition :D**

"From the Zues cabin; Skyler Cybert. From the Hera cabin; none. From the Posiden Cabin; none. From the Demeter cabin; Riley Lace, Noelle Tuttle, Bieryn Sheade and Xander Busch. From the Ares cabin; JJ, Grayson Spiwak, William Frencl and Madeline Bishop. Athena Cabin; Andy Rodgers, Johanna Roice, Lewis Clark, and Rory Byrd. From the Apollo cabin; Josh Summers, Kieran Dalca, Grace Summers, Sunny Shiz. From the Artemis cabin; none. Hephastus cabin; Henry Eyron, Harvey Black, Ruth Miles and Dimand Goshte. Aphrodite Cabin; Nick Jones, Tristen Roberts, Hollis Sterm, Aidan Clarce. Hermes Cabin; Gracie Taylor, Cato Laughlin, Jazzy Chase and Marius Lumos. Dionysus; Royce Black, Kaitlyn Griffith, Calius Wints, Pacius Wints. Hades; Zyon, Jaxon Donn Roberts, Ariana South, Tariousm Shineon..." The list went on until all twenty one cabins had reprasentatives, unless there were not children.

"Now, representatives, line up behind the gate." A large number of kids, about fifty kids in total lined up. The gate was right before a drawbridge that looked like if a bunch f kids ran across it, a few were sure to fall off. It lead of to the rockclimbling wall, that had cones, and trapezoids and just flat surfaces.

Gracie shared a glance with Cato, and they came up with a silent agreement- they would help each other, and then see what to do. The contestants were all in armour, and bracing themselves for the blow of the horn. A saytr grabbed the handle of the thing that opened the gate, and waited for Chiron to blow the horn.

'_Three. Two. One' _

The horn sounded and the gate dropped. Gracie managed to get ahead, as she was naturally a fast runner. Grace and Josh were at her heels, being naturally athletic and the campers watched in amusments as kids were being knocked off right and left by a seemingly invisible figure.

Only if you were amist the commotion, would you know it was Andy, whom was known in the past as one of the only female football players in New Jersey. She just plowed throught the kids, getting to the middle fairly easily. Cato, used to an uneasy moving surface after surfing in California, got there along with mostly everyone else, as she took her time but didn't stumble once.

Seagar, a rock climber, quickly caught up with the campers who had gotten to the island first. Cato followed closely behind (there is a YMCA for a reason, you know) and matched Gracie's pace.

A thud of a knife was heard, and Grace screeched in surprise.

"Grace, you okay?" Josh asked, looking down at his twin with concern.

"Fine!" She called back, and narrowly avoided aa spike that slashed out of the climbling contraption. Andy was climbing the wood like there was no tomorrow, her black hair flying around her head like a halo.

A shotgun sounded next to her head and she could smell the smoke as the bullet grazed her hair. She stared in shock at the hole in the wood, and looked up to the left, where Seagar was hanging from the contraption with a rope. He pointed the gun again, and on instinct, Andy dodged it by swinging away, now only hanging by her right hand.

"SEAGER!" She screeched, and gave him a Hades-worthy glare. He chuckled , and held out a hand, as if to say '_What?'_

"My mother's Nemisis." He flashed his pearly whites, and she rolled her eyes. She lunged up, and grabbed his hand, to pull herself up. The only problem with this was that his grip on the rope was lose, and as it was the only thing holding up 222 pounds was that no matter how strong your fingers were, you weren't going to stay holding on. Both of them suddenly dropped, and Andy screamed loudly, as they were dropping about ten meters. They braced themselved for the harsh impact, and winced when it came. Andy let go of her vice like grip on Seagar's forarms, and when she came up, her hair was straight and covering her face. Seagar grinned, and led her to the platform where they climbed out of the water.

"Here, let me help you." Seagar held out a dark hand for Andy to grab onto. She smacked his hand away and glowered at him as she pushed herself up. He rolled his eyes, and looked up to watch whoever was left.

So far, Cato, Gracie, Grace, Josh, Helena Star-Catcher, Amelia, Johanna and Nick were still on. It was always the beginning where the most people fell of.

"The Aphrodite wanna-be is doing pretty well." Zyon stated behind the boy.

"The who?" Seagar asked, watching with fascination as Helena and Gracie fought.

"The blonde." Zyon pointed to the girl who was clinging to the spinning section of the contraption.

"I suppose so."

"Oops! Sorry!" Cato called down to the girl with the purple streaks in her brown hair that she had just wacked with a flying ladder. The girl only replied with a long shrill scream and a splash.

"Karmas a bitch." Gracie called down to the girl.

"Why'd you say that?" Cato huffed as she climbed side-by-side Gracie.

"She's one of the people who put the hole in your area Monday." Gracie, then jumped into the tunnel that spun and randomly shot the person out the other end. It was hard to exit, and to avoid dropping, but Gracie had climbed it enough to know how to exit it.

"What are doing?" Cato shrieked shrilly.

"Buying you time! Go, and don't hesitate to push someone off!" Gracie called, and Cato scrambled up. She felt something grab her ankle, and her tennis shoe was pulled off.

She looked down to see Josh Summers smiling cockily up at her.

"THAT WAS MY ONLY PAIR OF RED VANS!" She cried, and kicked his hands off of her ankles.

He laughed, and started climbling faster. She matched his speed, so that his head only got past her ankles.

"Why aren't you fighting me?" He teased, twirling the calvary sword with ease.

"'Cause I don't need to. It'll make me slower, since you already stopped yourself." She yelled back, now already a body length above him.

Cato grabbed a handle... only for it to come out of the wall.

"Umph!" She swung around, so that her back slammed into the contraption, then dropped the handle. It fell, directly onto Josh's head.

"Sorry about that! Nothing personal, no hard feelings!" She kicked back so that she could keep climbling as Josh dropped into the water.

Meanwhile, it was Grace and Nick against Gracie, as everyone else had fallen off. Nick Jones was, by far, the most famous/ favorite Aphrodite camper. He didn't act like one (he was more like a Niall Horan than a Nick Jonas), though he did know more about designer fashion than he should. His specialty weapon was flaming balls of celestial balls, and though he didn't look muscular, more like skinny and lean, he still had an impressive six pack, and rock hard muscles.

At first glance he looked pretty odd, a kid with a grey jacket, and rainbow hair. Yes, rainbow. It was multicolored; brown, black, blonde, red, maroon, grey even, and random straks of pink, orange, and purple. This gained him the name of the rainbow haired warrior. Somehow (probably because his mum is Aphrodite) he manages to pull it off, instead of looking like unicorn threw up on his head.

Nick and Grace nodded, and both got ready for a fight. Syncronized to the last second, both grabbed Gracie's legs, and used them like ropes. Holding onto her legs and walking up the side of the contraption, the pulled her body back.

Pain surged from Gracie's calves, and her back was starting to ache from the banana-form it had taken. Taking a deep breath, she adjusted her arms, as they were stuck inbetween two handles. Suddenly, from the other side, a long medal ractangle popped out of no where and suddenly all three demigods were dangling by just Gracie's forearms. Let me tell you, they probably would've stayed on if it was her legs holding them up, but don't ever suspect that a soccer player/runner will be able to hold thrice her body weight with just her arms, and keep it up.

Her arms were burning, so instead, she took a sacrifice for Cato, dropping all three of them. One flag flashed and then the sign of Hermes blared. The Hermes cabin roared, but from the water, Grace looked at it in shock.

"Shit. She's going to get claimed." Grace sprinted (swimming in freestyle, of coure) to the platfrom, and scrambled up, and squinted her eyes. The sun was still up, causing it to blare in the camper's eyes.

Cato climbed up the part of the contraption that made you hanging on by just the toes of your shoes, and your fingers, as your back was above the water, and your hair hanging down.

She grabbed the top of the platform and hauled herself up, even her bones aching from the intense workout. The contraption slowly slid in, and her feet touched an even platform. The contraption kept sliding until sort of wooden stairs case was formed and she climbed up, her legs screaming under the stress. Her breaths were deep,and raspy. Sweat glistened on her forehead and her hair was an untameable mane, big enough to make even Hermione Granger jealous.

She grabbed the flag pole, and leaned on it. It glistened and glistened, but refused to show the God that was claiming it.

Chiron and Rachel Elizabeth Dare watched it, and Chiron decided to grab the megaphone.

"Cato Laughlin, please make your way down." He ordered. She looked at him, then back down. Then at him again. Then back down. Deciding, she took a step to the stairs.

Grace let out a long breath, and Andy watched the girls movements. The muscles strained in her legs, and her foot steps were narrow. After spending a semester and a half rooming with Cato, Andy knew something was up.

"Fudge. Holy Hephastus, she's gonna jump." She breathed next to Grace and Gracie.

"What?" Grace spun to look at the Athenian.

"SHE"S GONNA JUMP!" Andy hollered. As if Andy had told her, Cato slowly, and dramatically fell of the edge. It was graceful, as her back was to the edge of the contraption and she just... leaned... back. Slowly, she fell, and in the shock, nobody saw the flag stop flashing. She fell and fell, until she hit the water, her arms pointed and body straight, toes to the sky. Everyone let out of breath they didn't know they were holding when the girl emerged from the water. Her hair fanned out from her body, and she swam near the contraption to grap something. When she turned , Grace saw, in amusement, that it was her red van.

"Campers!" Chiron announced, and everyone's heads swiveled to the centaur.

"All hail Cato Bethany Laughlin, daughter of Posiden!" He pointed to the flag at the top of the contraption. It was waving in the breeze and on it was a sea greent trident.

**L-I-N-E BREAK, SUBSCRIBE! (Jazz hands)! Lol, does anyone else watch Paint on youtube?**

Grace broke through the crowd, Andy at her tail, to were Cato was standing with the oracle, Rachel Elizabeth Dare (otherwise known as RED) and Chiron. Cato was wrapped in a ninja turtle towel, and was nodding at something the man said. Grace pushed into the cirlce where the three were standing, panting from the work.

"Hey" another pant "So" another pant "What now?" She gained her posture, and looked to Chiron.

"Well-" He started .

He was interrupted by a siren sound, and the night air turned to a green tint. Every camper stopped talking and looked to the oracle, to see Rachel was as stiff as a board, her red hair levetated in the air swirling around her head and her eyes were shooting out the misty green light.

_A trio of demigods shall exit the gates,_

_on a quest that will try to test the fates._

_Where the seeds have been sowed,_

_and before down swooped the crows,_

_to find what'd gone missing,_

_years and years ago._

_To rescue the missing, the weak link,_

_for I isn't a story without a secret._

_This secret'll leave scars_

_that will be written in the stars._

*** No, I don't play soccer, but my best friend (or at least the one out of the three) plays soccer, and her team got third nationals, and I was basing off what happened by what she told me (my others bf's don't play soccer. One does volleyball with me, and the other dances. She' really good too, won nationals for her solo last year)**

**Kind of a cliff hanger, eh? I know, this prophecy is kind of crappy, but I don't do poetry, so yah, but it does have a couple deep/double meanings, so yay, right?**

**Review, and I will give you a virtual cookie and love you forever.**

**QotU:**

**What do you think I look like? **

**Just wondering :P**

**Peace out!**

**BY the way, does anyone want to rewrite the summary? 'Cause like, I don't think it's very good, and I suck at writing summaries.**


	7. Picture Perfectly Imperfect

**Hey Y'All! You know what, I think I'm gonna name you guys something... Let me think about it. So, let's get down to buisness (to defeat the Hans. You know what? The Hans were the bad people in Mulan _and_ Frozen. IDK about you, but I think I'm seeing a pattern here!). So so so so so sorry for not updating! It's just I didn't have loads of time, and then when I did have time, I was busy reading (Of Posiden is a really good book bt-dubs) or defeating my family in stressful games of clue. Anyways, I'm back, and I got home literally 10 minuets ago (of when I started converting the paper copy of chapter 7 onto the computer), so be glad I'm thinking so much of you guys! **

**Haha, I make myself laugh... anyways, about last QotU, the answer is I have brown hair, and funky eyes like Piper (but they only change from grey to green and brown. The actual reason they do that is because my Iris colors are in layers, so that when my pupils are really small, the grey-blue color is the biggest and therefore makes my eyes look that color, and then when the room is darker they're brownish because they've made the grey thinner, etc.**

**BTW, to who ever asked, yes I love Iggy! My favorite songs are either Rolex, Black Widow, Don't need Y'all or Work...**

**My b-day is Thursday! AHHHHH!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize blah blah blah etc.**

**So, onto the actual story!**

Rachel slumped back into the waiting arms of her assistants, her coils of firey hair wilting onto her shoulders.

Grace was wide-eyed, stiff, and slowly gulping.

Chiron placed a hand on her shoulder and she jolted back into reality.

"Wha...?" was the only audible sound that came from the shocked girl and her knees would've given way if she hadn't been holding onto the chair back beside her.

Whispers filled the night air as the campers whispered about what had just taken place.

"Counselors, to the Big House!" Chiron ordered and watched as the other campers grumbled in disagreement.

"Grace, You are to come also, as it's your quest." Chiron clapped the sixteen year old's back and she gave him a weak, insecure smile.

Andy's thunderstorm grey eyes narrowed to slits as she watched the twenty or so counselors trudge to the Big House.

"Cato!" She heard the centaur call to the blonde who was following the girl with the frizzy brown hair and shocking blue eyes.

Cato whipped around to face the centaur.

"Yes?"

"You are the counselor of the Posiden cabin, dear. After all, you only have three half siblings, two of which headed to Greenland a year ago on a quest and never came back." Chiron stepped aside so that Cato could have a clear path without having to run around his large figure.

"What about the third?" Her voice was quavering as she spoke.

"Oh, he lives in a house not far from here, about five minuets. His name is Percy Jackson, and he's about forty, so he wouldn't come where anymore." Andy's eyes widened, remembering the picture of Annabeth and Percy Jackson.

Cato visibaly relaxed, and followed the counselor of the Apollo cabin to the large house at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill.

Andy felt Josh come up behind her before she heard him; "Are you thikning what I'm thinking?" He asked, his green eyes whatching Chiron's tail swish back and forth as he made his way to the bighouse.

"What are you thinking?" Andy could also feel two pairs of eyes watching them.

"We can always get there and conveniently sit underneath the window where we can, once again, conveniently hear the counselors' conversation. You know, just a thought." Josh had already broke into a jog before Andy could even reply. She sighed loudly, rolled her eyes, but went after him anyways.

**linebreak.**

All of the counselors, plus Grace, Chiron and Rachel Elizabeth Dare were gathered around the ping pong table.

"Athena Cabin- have you memorized the prophecy?" Chiron asked as her pointed at Austin.

"Yes, sir. First line- _A trio of demigods shall exit the gates_."

"Obviously that's just telling us that three demigods are going to go on the quest." Justin, the head of the Hecate cabin, swirled his cabin as he stated the 'obvious'.

"Fine then, Capt. Obvious. Second line- _on a quest that will try to test the fates_." Austin's stormy eyes met Chiron's.

"Before you try to figure this line out, remember that prophecies often have double meanings." Chiron looked pointedely at Grace this time and she lowered her gaze to the 'Monster Donut' that was sitting on her five cent napkin infront of her on the golf grass green table.

"Well... it could mean that they make their own choices?" Axel Beavers' voice rose into a question.

"Or that they're going to have a really hard time." JJ, the counselor of the Ares cabin added.

"Or that they all die!" Nick held an ice pack to his forehead from the nights' so called 'friendly' competition.

"Or-" Jacque from the Khione cabin started to say, but was interrupted by Chiron.

"OKAY, next line."

"Third line- _Where the seeds have been sowed._" everybody looked toward Chiron, and he studied the ping pong table, his eye brows furrowing.

"So many seeds have been sowed, yet so little options. I think that I may be able to send you to somebody so that you may bet the answers." Chiron was now speaking only to Grrace and she nodded once to show that she understood.

"Okaay, fourth line-" Austin was about to begin when the head of the Iris cabin asked;

"How many lines?"

Austin and Chiron exchanged another glance and looked to Grace who was counting under her breath.

"Ten." She announced and whispers were exchanged around the table.

"That's an odd number." Some people said.

"It's normally twelve or eight or so." Others muttered.

"SILENCE!" Chiron ordered and signaled for Austin to continue.

"_Before down swooped the crows_." More mutters errupted and Cato looked to Grace in confusion.

"Crows are considered bad luck in a lot of religions. What I'm trying to figure out is what could be considered a crow in greek mythology. I know it was a white bird that was cursed lack in one story..." Grace spoke from out of the side of her mouth. "... like death." The head of the hephastus cabin, a kid named Micheal de Ville, overheard the conversation.

"No more death talk!" Seagar exclaimed, much to the appreciation of Grace.

"Thank you, Seagar. Now, Austin, the next two lines, if you will." The way Chiron held such authority reminded the counselors of Dumbledorr in 'Harry Potter'.

"Lines five and six say; _to find whats gone missing, years and years ago_."

"That's obviously the point of this quest; to find something." Justin now had a chocolate milk mustache, making the other campers giggle.

"But, it is also telling us to consult the history books." Austin butted in.

"No! It sounds like something that didn't seem super important. I mean, if it was important, like really important, that would be the first thing we thought of when we heard that line." JJ argued, the Athena/ Ares dispute still burning bright.

"Back then." Nick added.

"But you don't know for sure." Cato spoke up in the debate for the first time.

"Yes, but the structure of the sentence-" Austin started to argue his point back to the three.

"Does it really matter? Why can't you just go to the archives and be done with it?" Grace snapped in a frusterated manner.

"Thank you Grace. Austin? Next two lines." Chiron ordered. Austin readjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and then continued;

"_To rescue the lost, the weak link; for it isn't a story without a secret."_ This time, the counselor from the Demeter cabin spoke up.

"I mean, logically, the secret is a missing thing. But I think we need the defenition of rescue. Can you rescue something dead? Because if you can't, then we know whatever is missing has to be alive." She went back to growing little saplings in the pot under the table.

"I agree. Xander- if I remember correctly, I made you memorize that when you overused that word last year?" Chiron rose an eyebrow at the son of Apollo. The blonde huffed in annoyance, but did as he was told;

" To save (someone) from a dangerous or distressing situation." He recited dutifully.

"Someone. Now we know it is something living." The Demeter girl piped up.

"Yes. Well that knocks down objects- person, plants, or pets." Austin added to her statement.

"Good. Now Austin, finish the prophecy." Chiron's eyes looked like years of pain had been layered onto each other, but he closed them as he listened to the son of Athena.

"The last lines say _This secret'll leave scars that will be written in the stars_." He finished the prophecy and Chiron's face darkened considerably.

"Now, Grace who will you take with you?" Chiron asked before anyone could even try to discuss what the last lines meant.

Grace looked up from what was left of her donut, and then to Cato. Cato nodded once to her friend, and Grace turned back to Chiron and the rest of the ping pong table.

"Cato'll come."

Cries of "That's not fair-" and "but she just got here!" errupted from the other campers.

Chiron slammed his fist into the table and everybody fell silent.

"Cato; you will go. One more person, Grace." Chiron raised his hand in a way that clearly said 'halt' so that no other campers would interfere with the decision.

"I'll do it!" Came a cry. Everybody turned to see Josh Summers standing in the open window, and Andy Rodgers glaring at him for giving away their hiding place. Chiron chuckled, briefly, but then fell silent befroe saying;

"If line three and four mean what I think they do then I wouldn't recommend for you to g with your sister. Andromeda, would you consider going? I believe that since you three began together, it would be appropriate for you (Andy) to join them." Chiron gave her a small smile, but Josh was praticaly fuming.

"She's my twin! I'm not going to let her go frolicking to the other side of the country without me!"

"Josh! I'm not completely helpless! Andy, will you come with us?" Grace looked furious, which was odd for the normally level-headed girl. Her amber-chesnut haired twin looked shocked, disbelief scrawled across his features. Andy watched the siblings before nodding slowly.

"Great!" Chiron clapped everybody's gazes back to him.

"Cato, Grace, Andromeda-" Andy scowled at his use of her first name "-I would recommend a nice night's rest. Cato, Gracie Taylor will help move your belongings to your respective cabin. First thing in the morning tommorrow, come to the Big House to see me. I have something to give each of you." Chiron called the end of the meeting and all the campers scattered. Josh and Andy had climbled in the window, and Josh was still gaping at his twin.

"Andy, Cat- let's go get packed. Cato, go to the Hermes cabin to get your stuff, then move into the Posiden Cabin. It's the low roffed one next to cabin one, and it's on the left." Grace followed Andy out of the room. Cato looked to Josh and sighed audibly.

"Do you want me to not go?" She asked, referring to the quest, green eyes full of empathy.

"No." He choked, resting his head in his arms on the ping pong table.

"You sure?" She asked lowering to his height. He nodded stiffly, and his breaths were still shaky.

"This isn't just about this is it?" She asked the miserable boy. He shook his head 'no'.

"Here, have a cookie." Cato grapped a chocolate chip cookie and held it out for him, almost like a peace offering. Josh looked up, as if to ask 'Are you seriously giving me a cookie?'

"It'll make you feel better." Cato sang, and glanced out at the sun that was dutifully sinking in the sky. About thirty minuets to sunset. Josh sighed in defeat and snatched the treat from her.

"Great." Cato grapped a pen lying on the table, and a napkin. She scribbled down something and stuffed it into Josh's hand. Getting up wih one last glance to the boy, she exited. Josh watched as she closed the door and opened his hand to look at her neat, but bubbly numbers.

**LinebreaK**

Andy glared at the empty "Delphi's Strawberry Service" canvas backpack. It taunted her with it's bright yellow sun and the plump red strawberry.

"First things first." She told herself and grabbed her dark wash jeans. Packing everything from beanies to her combat boots, and those cheap pink plastic razors you find at the dollar store for a bag of a dozen. Andy left somethings in her drawers- an expired Trader Joe's coupon, sweatpants, the doctors contact card from the last 'episode', her plastic green Disney entrance ticket with Goofy on it.

Shaking out her old Target Mossimo bag, the mouth to the ground.

She watched as a packet of developed pictures bound with a princess pink rubberband flopped out onto her siver sheets. Hands shaking, she picked up the pile.

One by one, the picutre dropped onto the sheets, until only one was still in Andy's hands. Her hands shuttered, making the ohoto bounce slightly. It was an image of a brown haired girl, smiling away as she rode on a carousel. On th back of the picture, over the "PIXIFLEX" watermark were curly letters that spelled out: CASSIE

Andy let out a deep breath and tucked the picture into a pocket on the side of the bag. She collected the other photos and dropped them into the bottom drawer.

**ONLY a couple more linebreaks! In case you can't tell, I'm a disney child :P**

Grace was sitting criss cross on her bunk, surrounded by clothes and just stuff. She was deciding between Disney backpack and her leather backpack from an online store called "SPIGEN" or something along those lines.

"Kier!" She called to her half brother who was tuning his guitar on his bunk.

"Hmm?" Came the masked reply.

"Which one?" She held up both bags as she watched the kid throught the straps.

"The brown one." He pointed with the handle of his guitar to the leather one. Grace slowly lowered the bags into a pile on her lap, and heaved a sigh. Kieran stopped plucking his guitar strings and studied the chestnut haired girl.

"What did you do?" He pryed, a tone in hi voice that said 'It's probably not even your fault'. Grace started packing before she found what words to use when she replied to his question.

"I pratically told Josh that I didn't want him around and the he's too protective. I mean, he can be, but he's just trying to help, and show that he cares about me, and we almost always do everything together. Now I won't be able to see him for weeks because I'll be on this quest and he was just being worried about me. I'm such a horrible twin!" At this, she fell face foreward into the pile of clothes on her bed with a loud groan.

"Well you guys can't always be together. You will survive without him and he will survive about you. Just wait until tommorrow to cool off. You're guys are both so loyal that you won't be able to go such a long time bieng 'mad' at eachother." Kieran shrugged making it seem _that_ simple. Grace heaved another sigh and grabbed a framed picture on the shelf in the wall above her bunk. The frame was a simple birch frame, but that just brought out the colors in the picture.

It was a picture taken from back in their ranch in Montana. Grace and Josh both had their own horses, named Flame (Josh's horse was brown with white legs. She was a magnificent racing horse, earning her her name) and Glory (a white horse that looked silver in the bright Montana sun. She's nicknamed GG- a shortened version of what locals all called her- Grace's Glory). In the picture, all four of their faces were smushed side by side , Glory with her long thin silver face on the far left, then lext to her on the right was Grace drawing a silly face by crossing her eyes and puckering her lips. Next to her was Josh, rolling his eyes as if he was too mature for that type of activity, but the quirk in his lips were giving away his smile. His hand was stroking the ombre brown to white coat on Flame's snout. Grace took the image and stored it into the bag.

** K**

Blue. That was the first thing that went through Cato's head when she entered the Posiden cabin. She half expected to look like her house back in L.A.- A wooden beach cottage with starfish carpets, sand dollars in yellow whicker baskets, ocean paintings and the cliché "Home Sweet Home" wooden plaque.

Instead, the cabin had greyish blue walls, light blue curtains, Blue comforters, and whit blue bed frames. Basically, a whole lot of blue. Judging by the blue light in the room, Cato wouldn't be surprised if the windows were blue stained glass.

The next thing that went through her head were the three distinct smells: Chocolate chip cookies, Ralph Lauren cologne and the smell of the ocean; a mixture of sand, seafood and salt.

Dropping the backpack and duffel with a thud, the blonde teenager turned in a full circle, then headed to the bed closest to the door. It was bare, so she assumed it was usable. She emptied the duffel and backpack onto the blue mattress, when there was a soft knock on the (you guessed it) blue door. Without turning, Cato called "Coming! Or rather, it's unlocked!" The door clicked open and the person cleared their throat. Cato turned to see Gracie standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"I forgot to tell you- theres the bed stuff in that closet- oh, and you see that door?" She pointed to a door in the back left corner. "You get your own bathroom- lucky duck- and it's in there." Gracie turned to leave.

"Her Gracie?" Cato called out before she could leave.

"In case I don't see you tomorrow- thanks. Oh, and that guitar kid? Karen, was it? I think you two could really hit it off." Cato gave the brunette a wink.

Gracie scoffed and rolled her bright blue eyes, but her cheeks tinged pink.

"Yeah, right. I still think you should be an Aphrodite." But then Gracie shot the other girl a wide smile, then shut the door.

"Alone once again." Came the unevitable sigh.

** K**

**(this is officialy my new line break)**

Gracie closed the door to cabin three and took a deep breath of the outside air.

"Hey Gracie!" Came a call from a daughter of Demeter.

"Gracie!"

"Gracie, lookin' good!" Cat calls were heard as she passed, to which the brunette rolled her eyes.

"Gracie, come here!"

"Grakiepoo?!" This one earned a glare.

"Hey there, Taylor!" Gracie waved to those she passed and tossed the basketball that came speeding to her head back to the group of kids who were playing.

"Gracie! Hvae you seen Josh Summers?" A voice from the Apollo cabin called.

Gracie turned to see Kieran swinging off of the door. Gracie thought back to a (very) recent conversation she'd had and blushed lightly, trying to shake those awkward thought from filling her head.

"Karen! And no, but Cat told me that she talked to him at the BH." Gracie scurried to the porch after waiving to him.

"Karen?" He rose an eyebrow.

"That's what Cat thought your name was." Kieran about choked at that, then pretended to think.

"You know, I think she did that on purpose. It's because I pronounced her name 'wrong'." Kieran stroked an imaginary beard on his chisled **(A/N eyebrow wiggle)** jaw.

"What a way o slaughter a perfectly normal name. That reminds me, that was Natasha's (my friend back at home) sister's boyfriend and her sisters' shipname. Their names Erin and Corey so- wait.. Why were you talking about me in the first place?" He asked the daughter of Hermes.

She blushed and started spluttering; "We... Ah- You... Pschh. Why would-"

"Calm yourself, I was just joking." Kieran chuckled and threw an arm over her shoulders.

"So, the BH huh. Did the kitty kat tell you why he was there?" Kieran asked with a lopsided grin at his new nickname for the daughter of Posiden.

"Something about Grace S. And a cookie?" Gracie shrugged, but was still feeling incredibaly uncomfortable under his arm and eyes.

"A cookie?" Kieran rose an eyebow again, and Gracie nodded.

"Yah, but I don't think Chips Ahoy! can weigh enough to anchor anybody after something that rocked your boat. But seriously, all puns aside, what do they put in those things? I heard that if you boil down girl scout cookies or something along thos lines with girl scout cookies, they become some type of poison because of all the chemicals in them. I always knew not to trust them..." Gracie's voice trailed away, her ADHD taking full reign.

"Thanks. I think Axel was looking for you." Kieran removed his arm from her shoulders and jogged down the porch steps and toward the Big House.

**Whew! Chapter 7 is done! Seriously, the longest I've ever gone with a story is five chapters, so be proud. **

**QotU: Should you guys be called Pursuers, The Happiest or the HoPpers**

**I still need a (good) summary y'all!**


	8. Note

Sorry! I know I haven't updated in forever, but I really have a lot of school. Therefore I am putting this story on hold. If you want to write a chapter or something, you can send it to me, and I'll publish it. I don't know how long it'll be, but I have like 8 periods and half are for the grade above me, so it's alot of work. I also have a lot of music practice and volleyball, so you know... Thanks!

-Mwah


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